The House of Representatives passed a bill last week that will require colleges funded with federal student aid to have in place an emergency-response plan on campus.
The unanimous decision to pass the bill follows a similar law, signed a month ago, which requires colleges to immediately alert students of emergencies.
These college campuses will also be required to conduct campus safety assessments every year, and have in place response plans for both natural disasters and potential shooter or terrorism situations.
The purpose of the bill will be to ensure that certain minimum requirements are met by colleges regarding the safety of its students.
The House Judiciary Committee issued a report explaining why it is necessary to ensure the bill becomes a law.
According to the report, while many higher-education institutions have emergency-safety plans and conduct annual safety assessments, not all do.
Texas A&M University-Commerce already has the Pride Alert Warning System (PAWS) that is issued in the event of an emergency. Students can opt to have alerts sent to their cell phones in a text message, in addition to a recorded phone call and email. The PAWS sign-up is available under “options” on the home page for each student’s MyLeo account.
“Soon we will be able to alert staff and faculty via computer terminals, and we hope to eventually add L.E.D. signs across campus as well,” Lt. Jason Bone, crime information officer for the University Police Department (UPD) said.
A&M-Commerce also has in place an outdoor warning system to alert students, faculty, staff and the nearby community of severe weather, particularly dangerous lightning strikes. This system, ThorGuard, emits an air horn blast known as a red alert, for 15 seconds when there is a chance of lighting striking within two miles of the campus.
The UPD or Commerce Police Department (CPD) can activate an additional outdoor warning siren to warn all students and Commerce citizens of the probability of high winds at or exceeding 70 mph, hail the size of golf balls or larger and tornados.
“The UPD encourages everyone to purchase and monitor a NOAA weather radio for up-to-date weather information,” Bone said.
Bone feels that planning is the most important thing that a person can do to alleviate risks, especially in light of the Virginia Tech shooting and other related incidents.
“UPD has also helped implement a training plan for faculty and staff on what to do in an active shooter situation. The goal of this training is to get people planning what they would do in that situation. We hope to have a student version available sometime this year,” Bone said.
For more information about the weather alerts, visit http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/upd/severeWeather.html. Any issues concerning safety on campus can be directed to the UPD at 903-886-5868.