An hour after a deadly helicopter crash on Texas A&M's campus Monday, more than 35,000 students, faculty and staff members received an emergency notification urging them to stay away from the site.

The delay drew some criticism from people writing in area Internet chat rooms about the effectiveness of the university's Code Maroon system.

"It wasn't critical to send it out immediately," said Chris Meyer, assistant vice president of safety and security. "There was no imminent danger, so we had the opportunity to take it all the way to [A&M President] Dr. [Elsa] Murano's office."

In order for a Code Maroon to be sent out, two questions must be answered: Is there imminent danger to the university community? Is there valuable information those affiliated with the university need to know?

Meyer said it's the goal of those in charge of Code Maroon to seek approval as high up in the administration as possible. Once officials decided there was no danger to the university community, they needed to decide what information to include in the notification.

"This one really fell into a gray area," he said. "There wasn't quite the level of urgency that we've had in other instances."

Though classes were not in session at the time of the crash -- the students will return Monday for the spring semester -- Meyer said the target audience of the Code Maroon message was faculty and staff members.

The system has been used at least three times previously, Meyer said: When there was a gas leak on campus and when a bank robbery happened nearby. The third instance was not immediately clear Tuesday.

In case of an emergency, the chain of command can be passed over, he said.

"If it is believed to be a very urgent situation where minutes count, then the police officer in charge of the shift has authority to send out a Code Maroon," he said.

Besides the lack of danger, Meyer said another reason for the delay was that so many university officials were responding at the site of the crash.

The Code Maroon alert system kicked off in fall 2007 following deadly shootings at Virginia Tech. Texas A&M administrators made the decision to implement a text and e-mail notification system to alert the university community of potential dangers on campus or in the area.

At the beginning of last semester, another facet of the emergency notification system was implemented on campus.

"We have deployed our emergency radios around campus," Meyer said.

About 500 radios, which also function as weather-alert radios, have been placed in offices across the campus.

"We put them in places where there would be people to tend to them, check the batteries, and places where people would normally be," he said.

Though the radios were not used as part of Monday's Code Maroon, they will be utilized in the future. Another addition to the emergency alert system is tied in to the university's cable television system. An alert ticker will crawl across the bottom of the screen to alert passersby of imminent danger or valuable information.

"We're continuing to add and look at new ways to communicate with the campus population," Meyer said.

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2 comment(s) found!

Posted by: On: 1/14/2009

Comment Title: Timing Is Everything
I received a text message on my phone right about 4:00 PM, more or less as soon as it was sent. Should have been sent sooner, whether it was a true emergency or not.

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Posted by: On: 1/14/2009

Comment Title: E-mail Notification Leaves a Lot to Be Desired
My email notification was timed at 1:24 am long after I had gone home for the day. The email notifications can come as late as a day or two after the message was sent.

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