So far this semester, there have been two sexual assaults and two burglaries on campus. The assailants were apprehended and put under police control, and poster warnings were placed in highly trafficked campus areas a few hours later. The Emergency Notification System was not used.

Police Chief Eric Zangaglia said that a notification is sent through the notification system only when there is imminent danger, but police and students may disagree on what is considered an imminent danger.

Police shouldn’t determine for us what danger is worth using the notification system for.

For our safety, we deserve to be informed of every potential threat immediately through the notification system.

Placing notification posters throughout campus takes time, leaving community members unaware and uninformed for too long. The notification system uses call, text and email to send alerts in a much quicker fashion that placing posters cannot provide.

Furthermore, there is no information released between the time of the committed crime and posters being placed, which puts community members at risk due to their lack of awareness in cases where perpetrators have not been located and controlled.

We realize that situations under police control may not seem urgent enough to use the notification system, but we deserve to be informed immediately whether there is a threat or not.

Police may be refraining from using the notification system to avoid  panic, but we’d rather be informed than oblivious. If a situation is under police control, then that could be added to the notification to eliminate any panic.

Using the notification system for all emergencies betters the campus by keeping community members informed at all times, as they should be.