Michigan Tech’s Efforts Pertaining to Active Shooter Situations and Upcoming Changes
Michigan Tech takes a number of steps to help reduce the risk of an active shooter situation occurring on our campus and to provide knowledge and training to students and employees should they find themselves in such a situation.
- In 2017, active shooter training began on Michigan Tech’s campus. Since 2018, all regular new employees receive active shooter training as part of New Employee Orientation. To date, over 2,000 employees have received training.
- Active shooter training is available to departments upon request. As the training can be upsetting or traumatic for some employees, we recommend that supervisors speak to their employees about concerns in advance of the training. The training can be tailored to meet a department’s needs.
- In addition, there is a training video available on the public safety website. Warning: There are images of guns and depictions related to shootings in the video. Students hear from a public safety officer during Student Orientation. The officer discusses Safety First Alert procedures and what to do in the event of an emergency.
- Michigan Tech’s Department of Public Safety and Police Services coordinates with other law enforcement on a local, state and federal level to share information pertaining to known or potential adverse actors.
- Local law enforcement engage in emergency training operations at different locations (e.g., a local high school or our campus) so that personnel become familiar with the environment and more comfortable navigating it.
- Public Safety dispatchers go through a national certification and training process that teaches them how to respond to incidents of active shooters on campus.
- Michigan Tech utilizes a mass notification system (Safety First Alert) to provide rapid and timely information of critical incidents occurring and instructions on how to protect yourself. You can check or update your Safety First Alert information in Banweb under Personal Information.
- Our public safety department has national and state emergency operations training and leads Michigan Tech’s Incident Command Team and Emergency Operations Center, which have monthly meetings and regular tabletop exercises.
- An Emergency Operations Center is established for all major events (e.g., Winter Carnival and home hockey games) and can be set up rapidly in the event of an emergency.
Michigan Tech is also launching a Task Force to review emergency safety procedures on campus and make recommendations to the administration regarding the current state of emergency safety procedures and recommendations for improvement. The Task Force’s report will be complete in May 2023.
Note: While mental health resources, the SDC, the Dean of Students’ Kindness campaign and other such efforts are also important factors in mitigating the risk of violence on campus, they are not the focus of this article.