Many residence halls on campus have the mass notification internal public address system, but the Singles Complex do not.
A Bradley student started a petition after the Oct. 26 campus lockdown to install the internal public address system in the Singles Complex.
“I remember I was torn between, ‘Do I go up to my room and take shelter?’ or ‘Do I stand in the lobby and make sure nobody tries to leave?’” said Bryan Endres, the petition’s author. “As an RA, I should never be put in that situation where I’m risking my own safety because my residents don’t know what’s going on when they should.”
Endres, a senior computer information systems major, first realized the system was not installed in the three buildings during the first test of the semester.
He found it to be a problem when, instead of an audible alert, hall directors passed the information of the tornado warnings on Sept. 27 through text messaging to resident advisers of the Singles Complex.
After bringing his concerns to superiors in Residential Living, Endres said there has not been any action.
“The fact that I have brought it up and it’s just been dismissed as not important, to be told that I’m overreacting about not having a safety system, I think that also drew a line for me,” Endres said.
Brian Joschko, chief of police and associate vice president for public safety of Bradley University, said he thinks the university’s administration is transparent when students come to them for a response to the concerns they have.
He said he is interested in meeting with students over their questions on safety and security.
“I don’t know that an online petition is ultimately necessary or the best way to get information,” Joschko said. “I’m happy to sit down and have a conversation and understand what it is that their concern is and try to provide either a response or look to make some changes with whatever the policy is.”
Joschko explained the importance of the university being aware of those issues.
“I do think that this is valuable to receive feedback on these three specific buildings not having a public address system,” Joschko said. “I would encourage students, whether it’s this issue or a different issue, to bring those [concerns] forward.”
Endres was awake during the lockdown that occurred in the middle of the night, but he was not fully aware of what was going on until he checked his phone for the foreWarn text alert.
“It was very hard to go to sleep after [the lockdown],” Endres said. “You kind of have this thought in the back of your head, ‘Something could happen in the middle of the night and I won’t know.’”
Leslie Crawford, a senior community wellness major who is a resident adviser in the Singles Complex, did not know what occurred while she was asleep. Residents asked her questions she didn’t have the answers to.
“I feel like having that alarm just makes everyone aware, so then people aren’t asleep during an actual situation … especially within the single dorms,” Crawford said.
Twenty-eight buildings on campus have the public address system installed and two have outdoor systems.
“We have a number of buildings that don’t have public address and, so simply adding it into the singles doesn’t actually resolve the bigger issue,” Joschko said.
In addition to the public address system, the university also uses text messaging, emails, social media and a display on the Bradley’s main webpage to communicate an emergency.
“Our goal is to utilize numerous modes of communication and that’s critically important because at any one given time something can fail,” Joschko said.
Joschko said he is aware of some locations where the public address is inaudible but does not know how many more have a similar issue.
“This is where we would urge people with this information to provide it to us, so we can have the system inspected or checked or speakers replaced or whatever needs to be done,” Joschko said. “We can’t fix it, if we don’t know that it’s broken.”
