UT Austin Students Ask for Better Crisis Communication
Following the May 1 stabbing that happened on campus at UT, the Student Government is asking for changes to be made to communication policies.
On May 1, a 21-year-old male student stabbed four students on the UT campus. One of the students died from injuries sustained from the attack. Since that terrible incident, the Student Government is calling for better crisis communication.
The students are asking changes to be made to current communication policies that will help keep students in the loop during an emergency. This would mean that dispatchers would first notify first responders and then immediately send out a text alert to all students before dispatchers would take new calls.
“Our hope is really just that students, one, are understanding that the university and law enforcement are there to protect them and to ensure their safety,” said UT Student Government Chief of Staff Santiago Rosales. “And that that’s being communicated to them, and that students feel informed throughout any incident.”
Other changes the Student Government is asking are: new policy for addressing rumors regarding crises; inform students’ parents and guardians quicker, distribute crisis resource sheet to faculty; and to create new academic protocol for dealing with such crises which would include information about class cancellations to be better communicated to students.