This message is intended to outline the various queries and demands that the Faculty Association directs at the administration in reaction to the horrific attack on a class on 28 June.
1. Emergency Communications
- UW has an emergency communications app that was never used throughout the incident. Why?
- Who made the decision that the app would be taken offline? Why?
- What plans are in place for alternative emergency communications when the app is unavailable?
- Why were conflicting instructions given to faculty, students, and staff?
- Who on campus is responsible for emergency communications?
- Was the app back up and running when the senior administration made the decision to continue classes normally, except in HH, during that evening?
- Who is the vendor for this app? How often is the app unavailable?
2. Extremist threats and violence
- How does the administrations currently track threats of extremist and hate-motivated violence on campus?
- How are extremist individuals and groups identified and what measures are in place to protect students, faculty, and staff from them?
- What are the immediate plans to protect instructors and students that might be especially targeted, for example, in courses in Gender and Social Justice, Black Studies, Indigenous Studies?
- What are the immediate plans to protect staff and offices that support these courses and areas of study and research?
- What are the medium and longer term plans to develop protections and to combat hate and extremism on campus?
- How will faculty members with relevant expertise be involved in developing these plans?
- How will students and staff be involved?
3. Strong public support of humanities and social science teaching and research in areas of gender by the senior administration
- What plans does the senior administration have to provide meaningful support in teaching and research in gender and social justice?
- What plans does the senior administration have to provide meaningful support in all areas of teaching and research that might be impacted by hate and extremism?
- We demand that the senior administration make a strong and unequivocal statement that all faculty and students have the right to teach and study in safety.
4. Safety
- What should faculty, staff, and students do today or tomorrow or in coming days if they are threatened in classrooms, offices, and other spaces in campus buildings?
- What will the university administration do to ensure that last week’s horrific events are not repeated?
5. Suggestions
Here are some suggestions I have received from colleagues across campus:
- Having regularly tested panic buttons inside every classroom podium that connect to Campus Police. Apparently, some (many) of these already exist, but IST charges units a service fee to keep them functional. Why should individual units have to foot the bill for such basic safety measures?
- Renovating classrooms to ensure that all of them have more than one exit. This may also be a fire code issue.
- Having information about class schedules and room locations be only accessible to registered students, instructors, advisors, and relevant staff.
As I said, these are only my initial questions and demands in the immediate aftermath of the terrible incident. I’m sure we will all have more as the more information is made available. Please contact me with your suggestions.
David Porreca
FAUW President
Associate Professor, Classical Studies
The FAUW Blog 