Untitled Document

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

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Total Clips: 6

	Date	Outlet
In tragedy's wake, schools examine emergency plans	04/18/2007	Birmingham News
Band festival draws more than 600 student musicians from more than 300 schools	04/18/2007	Opelika-Auburn News
Farmers' market on AU's campus kicks off 2007 season Thursday	04/18/2007	Opelika-Auburn News
Alabamians Reflect On Massacre at Virginia Tech	04/17/2007	WSFA-TV
Auburn University Reacts to Virginia Tech Massacre	04/17/2007	WTVM-TV
Difficult to prevent evil-doers from evil deeds	04/17/2007	Opelika-Auburn News


In tragedy's wake, schools examine emergency plans 04/18/2007 Birmingham News Stan Diel		Return to Top
Just one day after the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history took the lives of 33 students and faculty at Virginia Tech, officials responsible for the safety of students on college campuses in Alabama were looking for lessons in the tragedy. "I certainly think there's a lot that every college and law enforcement agency is going to learn from this," said Randy Youngblood, chief of campus police at Birmingham-Southern College. Officials with all of the major colleges and universities in the state who were reached Tuesday said they were already reviewing their emergency response plans. While all expressed confidence that their plans would ensure the safety of students, most said they were concerned by an apparent lack of communication between Virginia Tech administrators and students during Monday's events, and they were considering new ways to reach students. Dale Turnbough, spokeswoman for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said UAB's emergency plan directs the university to reach students through an automated voice mail system, e-mail, the school's intranet and the media. But after reports that many Virginia Tech students never got word of events unfolding on that campus, UAB also is considering reaching students by sending text messages to their cell phones, she said. Plans for reaching students in the event of an emergency vary with the size of the campus. At Birmingham-Southern, the school's plan calls for the use of the telephone, e-mail, police cars with public address systems and even runners carrying messages. The campus police used the car-mounted loudspeakers during storms spawned by hurricanes in recent years. "It works well on a small campus," Youngblood said. Youngblood said school officials also hope to get better at preventing violence, not just responding to it. University officials are looking for ways to better identify troubled students, so they can be directed to help, he said. Anthony Purcell, who is chief of UAB's campus police force, said the urban campus presents an unusual security challenge. While access to many buildings is limited, the school's 80-block campus is as open as any city center. To prepare for the worst, UAB police regularly train for crisis situations. They recently underwent training on how to respond when a suspect is barricaded in a room, Purcell said. "This is basically an open campus," he said. "It's difficult, but it's a challenge we welcome every day." UAB's 70-officer department meets federal standards for emergency response planning and, under federal guidelines, arrangements already have been made for other law enforcement agencies to assist in the event of a major crisis, he said. Deedie Dowdle, a spokeswoman for Auburn University, said Auburn regularly updates its plan and, by chance, had a previously scheduled meeting on its emergency response procedures Tuesday. The school has twice in the last year practiced running drills that involved first responders and university officials. The school simulated a terrorist attack at a football game and a campus shooting, she said. Among Auburn's options for reaching students is making use of the loudspeakers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. "We're going to use lessons learned from Virginia Tech's tragedy as much as we can," she said. University of Alabama spokeswoman Catherine Andreen said UA also will look for new ways to communicate with students in the event of a crisis. Like other schools, UA's 57-officer police force trains for such incidents, and has agreements that make backup from other area law enforcement available. "We have plenty of resources available," she said. E-mail: sdiel@bhamnews.com
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Band festival draws more than 600 student musicians from more than 300 schools 04/18/2007 Opelika-Auburn News		Return to Top
The top 650 high school and junior high school band students in the state of Alabama will gather at Auburn University for the 2007 All-State Band Festival Thursday through Saturday. The Festival, sponsored by the Alabama Bandmasters Association and hosted by the Department of Music and the AU Bands, will include students from more than 350 school bands throughout the state. Participants were selected through competitive auditions held at eight district sites. When they arrive at AU, the musicians will audition for chair placement in the junior high band or the "red," "white" or "blue" high school bands. Composer James Barnes of the University of Kansas will conduct the red band; director of bands at Ball State University Tom Caneva will conduct the white band; and Lloyd Jones, director of bands at the University of North Alabama, will conduct the blue band. The all-state junior high band will be conducted by Cheryl Floyd, band director at Hill Country Middle School in Austin, Texas. All bands will rehearse Thursday evening and Friday and Saturday mornings and will present concerts on Saturday in AU’s Student Activities Building. The junior high and blue bands will perform at 11 a.m., and the red and white bands will perform at 2 p.m. A highlight of the festival will be a special concert for the participants by the AU Symphonic Band on Friday at 8 p.m., in the Opelika Performing Arts Center. The concert is also free and the public is invited to attend.
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Farmers' market on AU's campus kicks off 2007 season Thursday 04/18/2007 Opelika-Auburn News		Return to Top
Farmers' market on AU's campus kicks off 2007 season Thursday Staff Report Opelika-Auburn News Wednesday, April 18, 2007 The Market at Ag Heritage Park, a grower-only farmers' market on the Auburn University campus, will kick off the 2007 season Thursday with "Auburn Spring," as part of the AU Earth Day celebration. The Market, which is on Samford Avenue, will be open from 3 to 6 p.m. and will feature strawberries, greens, onions, broccoli, tomatoes and other spring produce. In addition, vendors will be selling bedding, vegetable and landscape plants, baked goods, goat cheese, stone-ground grains and honey. There also will be educational booths featuring information on sustainability and environmental awareness as well as information from several AU clubs and organizations. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., the market space will become an outdoor music venue featuring bluegrass and reggae music from well-known regional bands BPM and Blue 32. Local residents are invited to bring blankets or lawn chairs and a picnic dinner or buy dinner on the market grounds and settle in for an evening of music to celebrate spring. Prior to the celebration, the AU Environmental Institute and AU Sustainability Initiative will observe Earth Day by hosting day-long exhibitions, student competitions and music at Foy Student Union. The AU Earth Day program begins at 10 a.m. in the Foy ballroom with more than 40 exhibitors addressing a variety of environmental issues. Admission to the campus-wide Earth Day program, The Market and the concert are free and open to the entire community.
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Alabamians Reflect On Massacre at Virginia Tech 04/17/2007 WSFA-TV		Return to Top
Governor Riley ordered flags on all state buildings lowered to half-staff in the wake of Monday's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. Riley, in a statement, said he also encourages schools and local governments to lower flags on their buildings. President Bush also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of those killed. Flags will remain in the lowered position through sunset on Sunday. At Auburn University, students and faculty members are writing down their thoughts and expressing encouragement on a banner, which will be sent to Virginia Tech's campus. At Alabama on Tuesday, students gathered for a memorial playing of Denny Chimes at 4 Tuesday afternoon. With Help from Alabama Associated Press
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Auburn University Reacts to Virginia Tech Massacre 04/17/2007 WTVM-TV Elizabeth White		Return to Top
Hundreds of Auburn students, marker in hand, wrote words of prayer and encouragement on a banner they plan to deliver to the Virginia Tech Campus. "Just show that we are college students like them and show them we love them are thinking about them and are praying for them, it's not like we have something tangible we can give them, just want to do anything we can," said Auburn University student Holly Vining. While support pours in, tough questions are surfacing as to how Virginia Tech reacted and why they waited two hours before informing students of the first shooting. While Auburn officials won't comment on Virgina Tech's handling of the situation, saying it would be premature and offensive, they did respond to questions on their procedures to notify students on Auburn's campus. "At Auburn we have a plan that is well rehearsed and practiced system of communication to students, staff and faculty even the community at large due to the fact that we have so many weather emergency situations," said Auburn Communications Director, Deedie Dowdle. Within 5 minutes, a campus wide email can be sent out and a posting made to Au's website detailing the emergency and course of action. Then, a emergency call tree is activated. Also, a voice message can be broadcast over Jordan-Hare Stadium's speakers. That can be heard campus-wide. "Obviously not everyone can be prepared when a mad man decided to come to a public location and wreak havoc like we saw at Virginia Tech, all we can do is stay actively engaged in our emergency preparedness plan which this University community does," said Dowdle.
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Difficult to prevent evil-doers from evil deeds 04/17/2007 Opelika-Auburn News		Return to Top
Media outlets in college towns across America spent much of Monday writing stories asking local authorities how tragedies such as the one that occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech can be prevented. The truth is … they can't. Sorry anti-gun activists, if someone is that intent on killing people they don't need a semi-automatic weapon to achieve their goal. Lack of guns didn't stop Timothy McVeigh from blowing up a federal government building in downtown Oklahoma City and killing 168. The despicable hijackers on 9/11 didn't need pistols to ram planes into three buildings and kill thousands. All they needed were box cutters and a deranged disposition. If someone is intent on pure evil, there's not a whole lot that can be done to completely prevent them from attempting to commit horrible acts. That said, there are always more things that can be done to take reasonable precautions that may deter a tragedy. We've grown so concerned about the war on terror, it's particularly troubling to see Americans continue to take the lives of fellow Americans - in bulk. What happened Monday morning should serve as a wakeup call that it can happen anywhere, even here. Very little can be done to prevent someone from carrying a weapon, whether it is a firearm, or explosive device, on to campus at Auburn University, or even into a crowded shopping center. We can't expect law enforcement officials to strip search all passersby or have dogs sniff each vehicle. Virginia Tech students were reportedly in "chaos" Monday morning. That said, it would be a good idea to review whatever reaction plans are in place and take measures to either improve them or keep them fresh on everyone's minds. City, county and Auburn University officials don't owe it to us to prevent such a tragedy. But they do owe it to the community to take every reasonable precaution. They must examine what is in place now to keep the public safe and use this horrible tragedy as an opportunity to look for more effective safeguards. We can't stop nutcases from attempting murder, but we can make it more difficult for them to achieve their goal.
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