USC shooting: questions linger, faculty wants input

The chairman of the University of South Carolina Columbia faculty senate expressed sorrow Friday at this week’s on-campus murder-suicide and said the faculty wants to be part of any process evaluating ways to improve the university’s current alert and response system.

“We as a faculty are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our own,” James Knapp, chairman of the USC Columbia Faculty Senate, which represents USC’s 1,800 main-campus faculty members – those professors who are, with students, on the front lines of any university emergency shooting situation.

Knapp said while it was too early to raise concerns publicly about any specific issues associated with USC’s alert system, he said the faculty likely would have suggestions and would look forward to working with the university administration to consider any improvements in how USC responds to emergency situations.

Meanwhile, although many said that on the whole, the university’s alert system apparently reached many students, questions arose about aspects of the university’s alert and response system. Among them: How can students whose professors have instructed them to turn off their cell phones during class know about a text message alert?

On Friday, USC spokesman Wes Hickman gave initial answers to some security-related questions forwarded to the university by The State. The spokesman said:

Specifically, four text messages were sent through Carolina Alert – initial notification, follow up, all clear and a final text with a link to a statement by USC president Harris Pastides. Campus-wide emails also were sent. And USC used social media and television crawlers.

The spokesman said that when an incident report is released, it will contain a more detailed chronology and sequence of events as they unfolded as the first officers arrived on scene.

This story was originally published February 6, 2015 at 11:36 PM with the headline "USC shooting: questions linger, faculty wants input."