A-Senate: Faculty disappointed by CMU's communication of shooting threat on campus
Faculty members are concerned about the communication of threats on campus after administrators failed to inform students and faculty about a man who threatened "a shooting" in Pearce Hall.
According to Central Michigan University Police, the father of a fixed-term faculty member threatened to "fire shots" on Oct. 30. CMUPD investigated the threat and determined there was no immediate danger.
However, some faculty members expressed dissatisfaction with how CMUPD and Faculty Personnel Services handled the case during Tuesday’s Academic Senate meeting.
“We want to know why we were not informed of the incidents,” said Katrina Piatek-Jimenez, a mathematics faculty member. “What actions have been taken?”
Provost Michael Gealt said CMUPD handled the investigation. Prosecution decisions are up to legal counsel and not the university.
“In terms of communication between faculty and students, there are some procedural problems that we did not communicate effectively,” Gealt said. “There have been discussions within the academic administration area. We are in the process of creating a new procedure."
Gealt called the incident “unfortunate,” and told A-Senators that the person has been banned from campus. Any future incidents like this, he said, need to be communicated to students and faculty in a timely manner.
“We have to address the communication issue,” Gealt said. “This is a large campus. There’s some variation from incident to incident. It’s something we have to discuss more.”
Michael Mamp, a human environmental studies faculty member, was teaching in Pearce at the time of the incident.
“We all heard the kerfuffle happening in the hallway,” he said. “The people that were involved in that event were very concerned for their safety. They were basically told by the police that they were safe. It was really concerning to me that when someone walked up and down the hallway saying they were going to shoot everyone, the initial response we got was, ‘Too bad. Teach your class anyway.’"
Gealt deemed that “an inappropriate response.”
Laura Frey, a counseling and special education faculty member, said President George Ross will now be involved in the decision to release information on incidents like the one from Pearce Hall.
