University tests emergency systems with lockdown

The emergency lockdown issued across Eastern New Mexico University’s campus Monday morning was just a drill. But it got some people thinking.

“We were told last week that we would have this drill this Monday,” said senior Sarah Nino, who works in the Campus Union Building. “I’m here for five hours, so I think it’s going to happen on my shift (if it happens in real life). It makes you think ‘What if this really does happen?’ because it’s happened so much in the country.”

Nino said she and other CUB staff locked all the doors and turned out all the lights as they had been previously instructed to do.

University President Steven Gamble said that is the entire point of testing the university’s emergency communication system, RAVE Alert.

Gamble said he make a live phone call through the system that is automatically sent to phones across campus, including classrooms.

“From what I can tell, I believe it went well,” Gamble said. “I went to the cafeteria to have lunch, and I had people telling me they heard my voice telling them there was a lockdown.”

Gamble said the university will have to review surveillance tapes and talk to people before knowing exactly how everyone reacted and who may not have gotten the emergency alert.

He said the campus will likely have full results in one to two weeks.

“With all the examples around us in today’s nation of shootings, we have to take this seriously and part of that is communicating that there is an emergency,” Gamble said. “We hope we never have to use it for real, but if we do, we want to be ready.”

Sophia Magnuson, a freshman, was taking a math test in the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts Building when the alert came through.

“The faculty and staff came in and said we were doing a simulation and that we needed to turn off all the lights and get under a desk or away from the windows,” she said. “We were told to turn off our phones and stay silent until they said it was all clear.”

She said the lockdown lasted five to 10 minutes, and no one panicked or became scared.

Valerie Jimenez, a junior, was walking down the hallway in the chemistry building when she received the alert and ran into a classroom where others were “off to one side of the wall.”

Jimenez said students were talking, which is not supposed to happen in an emergency situation, but other than that, it was smooth sailing.

Rachael Young, a junior, was in class in the arts and anthropology building, when the phone on the wall started buzzing, saying something was going on.

“Some people were talking, others were ‘I’m bored; I’ll read a book,’” Young said. “It’s good that they’re getting people to actually do this just in case somebody is actually stupid enough to come to school with a bomb strapped to their chest.”

Gamble said at some point next year, the university will also be doing an active-shooter scenario that will not be announced to anyone.

“The main purpose was to make sure our communication system is working, so we tell people as soon as possible when there’s danger on campus,” Gamble said of the Monday test.

But the next drill will be more realistic with an actual person running around campus in the role of an active shooter, Gamble said.

— Staff Writer Matthew Asher contributed to this report