Training Disseminated

By Angeles Oviedo

Last week, Vice Provost for Student Life and Dean of Students Jeanne Rosenberger sent an email to all students encouraging them to complete an online training course on emergency procedure training.

The training course includes 27 brief slides on what to do during a lockdown, active shooter and hostage situations and how to report behaviors of concern. A video included in the training module demonstrates the procedures in action.

President Michael Engh, S.J., first introduced the course to students via email late last February, citing the recent shooting in Newtown, Conn. as a reminder that students should take the time to learn how to prepare for an unexpected event.

The training module reports statistics that over the past 10 years there have been over 40 shooting incidents at North American colleges and universities and that over the past 12 months, over 35 schools in the Bay Area have been under lockdown.

The training course encourages students to make sure they are enrolled in Santa Clara Campus Alerts, the university's primary means of sending out emergency notification.

"I think it's a really good idea to have something in place to ensure that people know how to protect themselves in a breach of security," said senior Sonia Suri. She added, however, that email not might be the best way to disseminate the emergency procedure information.

Senior Allison McPartland suggested that a physical practice of emergency safety procedures.

"In an emergency situation everyone is so panicked and anxious. I think that more people would know what to do (after practicing the procedures)," she said.

"Some people will read the email, but even if you do read it, are you going to retain the information on the slides?" she said, "whereas, if you do a practice of it you might not take it seriously but you're not going to forget doing it in class with your professor."

Contact Angeles Oviedo at aoviedo@scu.edu.