Over the past couple of weeks, Winthrop University has experienced multiple instances of emergencies, from tornado sirens going off to an extended power outage last Monday night. Due to these emergencies, many questions have been raised around campus concerning the WU Alert system.
This alert system is required by the federal government under the Clery Act, that all colleges and universities have a method of notifying the campus of any emergencies.
In Winthrop’s case, the alert system is made up of Alertus, which are the yellow boxes seen around campus buildings, Blackboard, which has the email, text, and phone call lists, and LiveSafe, which is the app Winthrop uses to send notifications out.
“WU Alerts are designed as the emergency notification for critical instances for when we want people on campus to take immediate action,” said Interim Chief of Winthrop Police Charles Yearta.
Critical instances are defined as anything that could have a severe impact on campus, such as weather or an active shooter situation.
In terms of the tornado sirens heard by students recently, Yearta said that the tornado sirens weren’t actually for Winthrop.
“York County has nuclear sirens that they also use as tornado sirens and they are placed throughout the county. They also have an overlap feature so that if one fails, another picks up,” Yearta said. “This is not an uncommon thing to happen where certain sides of campus will hear tornado sirens even when the area is not under a warning.”
He also said that “if the campus itself has a tornado warning, you will definitely know. Not only will we send a WU Alert out but there are multiple sirens right around campus so deafening that you can’t even hear yourself talk to someone.”
A WU Alert was not sent out because Winthrop was not included in the warning, and the sirens were instead for McConnells and Chester County. However, Yearta did say that campus leadership is working on creating an email list, so students will know if there is the potential for tornadoes during the day.
“We are trying to send everyone an email at the start of the day if there is the potential for tornadoes in the area that day so that way if the sirens do go off, y’all will know in advance that unless you receive a WU Alert, the sirens are not for our area,” Yearta said.
With the power outage, the delay was caused by the wait for accurate information from both Duke Energy and the City of Rock Hill.
Yearta also cautioned against believing everything you see on social media.
“We understand that social media is raging and a lot of times you will receive ‘information’ faster. The problem is that sometimes it’s not accurate and we are not going to initiate something unless we have accurate information,” he said.
Winthrop students have mixed feelings concerning the WU Alert system.
“Overall the WU Alert is a good thing. The critiques come when they delay the alerts or when they don’t alert on something they should’ve,” said freshman biology major Melody Guerin.
Sophomore human development and family studies major Grace Corbett agreed.
“I wish that students were provided more information about what to do in case of losing power; as no one really knew what to do. I wish that they could provide us with more information overall regarding the topic,” she said.
“WU alerts are meant to keep students informed and safe, I just think they need to be a little more effective,” said freshman political science major Maddy Best.
Yearta reiterated that the most important thing students could do was make sure that they are enrolled in the WU Alert system so that they can be notified in case of an emergency.
