After a gunman opened fire at Florida State University's Strozier Library and injured three students in November, many praised the library's security system and the quickresponse of police officers, who shot and killed the assailant.
Also earning praise from administrators and campus security experts were the actions of the roughly 300 students who were studying inside the library at the time. Students quickly abandoned their belongings to escape out a back exit or seek cover. They hid behind bookshelves and barricaded themselves inside classrooms, waiting for an all-clear from the university as a gunfight erupted outside the building.
But students' responses to campus emergencies are not always so exemplary, especially when the sound of gunfire isn't prompting them.
"I wouldn't make a general statement that students are not at all prepared," said Byron Piatt, emergency manager at the University of New Mexico. "But I would certainly feel a lot better if they took emergencies more seriously."
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/09/students-faculty-dont-always-react-quickly-emergency-alerts