In recent years, NEIU has experienced hazardous material spills, two fires, a blackout and a large flood. Since 2003, the university’s Emergency Management Plan remained a work in progress, a document in draft form that was shrouded in secrecy. In the wake of the February 14 shooting at NIU, however, Director of NEIU Public Safety Chief James C. Lyon, Jr. allowed an Independent reporter to look through the plan.
“One of the things that I was concerned about after Northern happened was all these questions about people in the university feeling safe. I want to make sure the university community feels safe on campus,” Lyon said.
The university’s plan sets out guidelines on how things will be handled in the event of an emergency. Chief Lyon said, “It talks about how different offices will prepare in the university, to evacuations, and to specific emergency responses that may occur.”
“We have a document and most of the chapters are absolutely perfect, except it always needs updating,” President Sharon Hahs said. “There should be a cycle of what is the latest thinking on this, and how should we improve upon things.”
For years, university officials have been reluctant to discuss the draft plan. It is a document at a public institution that is not made public for good reason, as Chief Lyons explained. “I understand that we have never given the plan to anybody, and that’s intentional. Say an incident occurred in the class room building, say it was an active shooter or whatever; we are not going to divulge how we are going to proceed in handling that situation for obvious reasons. We don’t want to jeopardize anybody,” Lyon said.
Most of the documents on campus must be made public by law because NEIU is a public institution and is partially funded by tax dollars. For example, the university budget is placed in the library for anyone to see, but according to Lyon, The EMP is sensitive information that can endanger people if it is made public in full. That is why the university has the right not to publish or distribute it to anyone who wants to see it.
Hahs explained that there is one chapter that has not been carefully written. “So it doesn’t look pretty yet. It is a very adequate plan. It is by definition always a work in progress,” she said. “We have the information we need and we will always be updating it.”
The Independent was allowed to browse through the plan. There are 52 pages of information regarding ‘what if’ scenarios, structures of who handles what in an emergency, temporary locations and instructions on how communications will be delivered, among other things. In addition to that, there is a section on evacuation procedures, and the chapter that is still in draft form. That chapter is titled “Training and Testing.”
In the event of an emergency, the immediate form of communication will be “from a human response.”
“It is going to be from our police officers going out and notifying people, along with the parking office and facilities management. That’s what is going to happen right now,” said Chief Lyon. Other forms of communication are currently being considered.
Public Safety officers practice active shooter training that takes place on campus. They schedule these whenever the campus and funds are available.
Soon public safety will be providing informational sessions about what the university is doing to keep students safe on campus. These sessions have not yet been scheduled, but it will be an opportunity for the entire university community to hear first hand what is being done to keep people safe.