The University has been disrupted by two different shelter-in-place orders in the last weeks, causing fear and anxiety for many members of the University community. Feb. 25, a shelter-in-place was ordered as Virginia State Police searched for a suspect after a disrupted traffic stop — students were deemed safe after nearly five hours. Feb. 27, a stabbing attack produced a shelter-in-place that lasted an hour. Both events also required text and email updates from the University informing students on the status of their safety. The updates issued by the University Police Department in these times seemed, to some students, so inadequate, that they turned to the social media platform Yik Yak for their news.
Although frustration at the timing and specificity of the police response to this situation is understandable, UPD’s response must be understood in the context of other safety challenges over the past few years. Over the past decade, there have been a variety of painful moments on Grounds which produced police responses. Police updates in the past have been controversial in either the police’s failure to ensure student safety or their overstep of boundaries to do so. This history means that community members and students have vastly different experiences of law enforcement at the University, experiences which are implicitly informed by the length of time they have spent on Grounds. However, in the most recent iteration of incident response, UPD organized a coherent, expansive response to threats against community safety, one which deserves commendation.
Aug. 11, 2017, neo-Nazis and white supremacists stormed across Grounds, wielding torches and spewing hate. University’s authorities watched armed Nazis take over Grounds. Students, rightfully feeling threatened during this event, were equally disappointed by the response of the police and administration who collectively failed to fully inform and protect students.
Nov. 13, 2022, Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis and D'Sean Perry were shot and killed on Grounds. In this chaotic event, students were left in the dark by police alerts, often turning to social media for news about their own safety which propagated fear and anxiety during the 12-hour shelter-in-place. In the wake of the shooting, the University transparently acknowledged their failure to inform students and increased law enforcement presence on Grounds.
May 4, 2024, the University responded to student encampments with an oversized police presence. A swath of police donned riot gear and used chemical irritants to deal with 20-30 protesters in tents. Students, instead of feeling left behind as in the past, now felt the overbearing and violent presence of police in a situation that could have been handled differently.
Clearly, as these traumatic moments suggest, the role of law enforcement at the University has changed over the past decade. And these moments do not even include students’ more mundane interactions with law enforcement. Thus, we must understand the University’s response to these threatening situations through the context of a middle ground, where the alerts they send out keep students safe but do not require a constant police presence on Grounds. In this sense, students saw what a police response looks like after experiencing criticism for extreme actions last spring. Through its alerts, the University shared as much as it legally could with students, but also responded to the events in the ways that it had learned — if you apply too much police presence, students get hurt. If you apply too little, they still get hurt.
However, these police alerts exist in competition with student-spread information on apps like Yik Yak that threaten to disrupt this middle ground, making police notifications seem less important and less relevant. Social media can disperse information about potential attackers faster than University administration or UPD can. But mere speed is not the ultimate goal of the police system. The University sends out alerts to be purposely concise and clear in an emergency. Exaggerated and inconsistent information can be a major source of unnecessary panic amongst students who need to stay calm in extreme situations. Posts on Yik Yak mean that delayed, confusing and even false information can be spread to thousands of students in seconds. It dilutes the fact-checked University updates with rumors. Students may have access to more information faster, but that mixed information does little to actually improve their situation, even if a nugget of true information sneaks in with the slew of falsehoods.
Keeping students safe during times of trouble requires buy-in from all stakeholders at the University. The University did well last month, precipitating a police response which inhabited in a happy middle ground between over and under reactions. They sent out timely, accurate information and upheld community safety in a similarly timely manner. In short, students were kept safe. Effective communication and safety require clarity, and in this moment, the University succeeded.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors, the two Senior Associates and an Opinion Columnist. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.
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