Student safety: NGU emergency response manual in the making
Chloe Cloutier, Staff Writer
North Greenville University has a new manual in the works, with several departments across campus compiling information students need to respond to emergency situations on campus.
Billy Watson, Senior Associate Vice President for Campus Operations, has been working at NGU for over 30 years. Along with a committee, Watson is helping put an emergency response manual together and believes that they will be finished with the manual soon.
Watson said he was “pulling it all together” this semester. Pieces and parts of the manual have been around, but they are now really trying to consolidate the information.
This manual is to help students be safe and protected while on campus at NGU. Once it is published, it will be posted in every classroom with essential details on response to a variety of emergency situations. It will also be posted on North Greenville’s website and the NGU portal.
Public information such as how to respond to weather emergencies or other natural disasters will be available for the public to view. Other sections can be reviewed and accessed by students and the faculty, but not everyone in the public will be allowed to see it.
Watson said, “It’s just like the other day when we had the tornado warning, for people to know where to go.” The manual will help the students listen to alerts and know what the alerts mean.
“It just lets people know what to do if something is happening. It might not be affecting the whole campus, but certain parts of campus.” Watson said.
Out of every piece of information on the response manual, Watson said that the most important thing is that students understand what the alerts mean and that they follow them.
Some students may receive an alert or notification, such as a text message or email from the school about an emergency, but may refuse to act upon it or mistakenly miss looking at it.
Students need to understand that whenever they receive an emergency alert, they need to follow up on it.
Watson himself used the manual around five or six times when NGU faced several tornado watches and warnings in recent weeks as well as thunderstorms and water problems. Watson always looks at it to verify if and when to send alerts out to the students.
Watson said he hopes the manual being used is not a daily tool, but said it can be a daily tool.
Kai McAnally, elementary education major, said, “I would like to have one because I would like to know what to do if a certain situation occurs or rises.”
McAnally thinks the manual would be important because she values her own safety as well as the safety of others.
Kai would probably read the manual in the beginning of the semester, but wouldn’t read it continuously unless there were an actual emergency.
“We have been having gas recently in our dorm hallway and have been smelling it for days which could possibly cause an explosion, so the manual would be good right now to explain what to do with the gas problem,” said McAnally.
McAnally has talked to her RA and has contacted some others about the gas smell, but she thinks there would be better results if she knew exactly what to do with the gas issue. The manual sounds like a beneficial addition to her.
Overall, the manual will provide valuable information on how to respond in a variety of emergency situations.
