As a female student who lives in the Sorority Row area, many of my friends and I have felt very nervous about being in Gainesville because of the recent crimes that have occurred around campus at night. One idea I have which might help ease some of this concern is improving the timeliness of the emergency notifications being sent to us.
Following the sexual battery that occurred Nov. 29, I never received an emergency text message to my phone, and I was not sent an email informing me of the incident until 9:35 a.m., more than seven hours after the time the 911 call was made, according to the email.
UF Alert was inconsistent in that it later sent an email informing us of the attacker's identity, but the message had no follow-up alert on his actual arrest, an event many would have been relieved to hear about. For the sexual battery attempt Dec. 9, the emergency notification system was quicker to respond, but the text message still did not get out until more than an hour after the incident occurred, with the attacker still at large and quite possibly still in the area. I know people who walked near that area during that time with absolutely no knowledge of any potential danger.
In addition, I have learned about other local crimes this semester not from Emergency Management, but from alternate sources, including members of the University Police and local newspapers. Some even occurred between the two attempted sexual battery incidents, notably an assault and robbery that also took place around Sorority Row. Why are students informed of campus power outages during Thanksgiving Break but not of a serious crime such as this one? While UF is by no means responsible for any of these criminal actions, the university does have a responsibility to ensure the safety of its students.
The emergency notification system, if used efficiently and frequently, can be instrumental in keeping students instantaneously aware of potential dangers in their area. If "emergency" messages are not issued in a timely manner, they do not serve much purpose to us at all.
I am really hoping that this problem can be improved for future responses to UF-related emergencies. I encourage everyone, male or female, to look after themselves and each other, sign up for Rape Aggression Defense classes and continue to submit feedback to UF's Emergency Management staff to help make the UF campus and surrounding areas feel a little safer for all those who live there.
Carly Coleman
English and Fine Arts Major
