The recent spate of crime around campus necessitates preventative action by both students and administration at Tech.
Informing the campus community when an instance of crime occurs is paramount. Yet a good number of students may have missed the two Clery Act email notifications sent out following the armed robberies last week due to a feature known as “clutterbox,” almost another spam folder. Emails continue to be placed in this folder despite the feature supposedly being turned off for all Tech email accounts.
When an incident is in-progress — as was the case Saturday night with the two armed robbery suspects — bringing attention to danger through GTENS is extremely helpful. However, instructions ordering students to proceed to the interior of access-controlled buildings are often unable to be followed as there are restrictions on the majority of buildings that can actually be accessed by a student with a BuzzCard after a certain hour. Therefore, when a GTENS alert is issued, all access-controlled buildings should be accessible using any BuzzCard, regardless of the relation of its owner to the building.
The emergency blue-light beacons can be a powerful tool for members of the Tech community to mitigate or avoid dangerous situations. However, the methodology of their use is not immediately clear. For instance, when finding oneself in a threatening situation, hit the button on one emergency station, then proceed quickly in a direction away from the threat. The individual should then hit the buttons at other stations along his or her path. GTPD is able to better determine the area of the danger when presented with a path of a person running away from it.
All members of the community need to remember that they are in the center of Atlanta. Do not let awareness lapse in any deserted areas, even during the daytime.