IU Students Have Concerns About Safety And Lack Of Notifications About Threats

WFIU | By Bente Bouthier

Published November 14, 2019 at 4:08 AM EST

President Isabel Mishkin, IU Student body president (left), Patricia Cornejo, IMU Board President (center), and Ben Hunter Ben Hunter, associate vice president for IU Public Safety and Institutional Assurance.

Indiana University Student Government held a panel Wednesday night to address recent concerns voiced by students about safety and the IU Notification systems.

Following a shooting at a house party on South Grant Street last month, no notification was sent out by IU alerting students of the event.

Students voiced their concerns -- and even outrage -- on social media following the lack of alert, referencing other instances in which IU Notify has been used.

IU Notify when there’s a shooting: ... IU Notify during a power outage: be vewy carefuw not to stub your toes duwing dis nighty night — ᑕᗩᎥ丅ᒪᎥᑎ ᑭᗩ丅ᗴ (@cait_pate) November 8, 2019

I was at a party on 2nd and Fess with an active shooting a few years ago. IU sent out an alert. Fess and Grant are 2 blocks apart. IU chose not to send an alert to save face during homecoming weekend and protect their image. I won’t believe otherwise https://t.co/4g7diOG9F3 — Mandy (@mndyndrsn) October 17, 2019

Let me get this straight. IU won’t notify of warm us about a shooting that happened MINUTES from campus. But they’ll notify and warn us to take caution about vandalism on cars? — Isis ? (@_its_isis) October 24, 2019

Wouldn’t it be cool if IU used IU notify to actually notify students of things that students cared about — Matt Dill (@pickler363) October 17, 2019

IU Student Body President Isabel Mishkin says the panel was meant to help the IU administration and students get on the same page about expectations and to give students a voice in the process.

“In the next few months I hope to have more really productive conversations with different administrators, with different offices and departments so that they're on the same page with students on what we're hoping to see," she says. "So that students aren’t relying on outside news sources or what they hear from their friends or group chats.”

She spoke to the audience about why IU did not send an alert, mentioning the Clery Act.

The Clery Act details that colleges that recieve federal funding must send timely warnings and have and have an emergency response system in place. When a school is notified of a crime on campus, a school official must review if it is a "serious, ongoing threat."

The act also says, "Institutions must also inform the campus community about any 'significant emergency or dangerous situations involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees on the campus.' Such situations may include, but are not limited to, crimes of sexual violence, fires, earthquakes, on-campus shootings, and other situations listed under the Act."

Indiana Memorial Union Student President, Patricia Cornejo, and Ben Hunter, associate vice president for IU Public Safety and Institutional Assurance also spoke at the event.

Hunter says IU did not know about the shooting until after the suspects were already in custody, so school officials determined the situation wasn't considered on-going.

This post has been updated.