If you're prepared, you can manage a crisis - Women Communicators of Austin

On September 28, 2010, a math sophomore at The University of Texas at Austin opened fire on campus with an AK-47 rifle and eventually ended his life in the Perry-Castañeda Library.

Today, Robin Gerrow and Rhonda Weldon from the Public Affairs and Communications departments at the University shared their crisis communication strategies for that difficult day.

Rhonda shared the four reasons her team was able to manage this crisis.

Planning, preparation and practice
Communicated to their audience using multiple plateforms
Ample training for staff
Inner-departmental relationships

At least 12 communication channels were used to broadcast the alert and provide information updates to students, faculty and parents, including mobile texting, email, TV alerts, a 1-800 info line, social media channels and the website.

Even with social media taking a front row seat in the action, Rhonda and Robin experienced some technical difficulties along the way.

Rhonda’s brand new cell phone stopped taking calls at the beginning of the crisis – bad news for media needing to talk to the Public Information Officer.
The University took over the televisions on campus, posting a static screen with information about the lockdown. Those stuck on campus resorted to streaming news coverage from the Internet, overpowering the University’s broadband.
All students were sent an alert text message seven minutes after the first report came in, but some cell phone carriers didn’t deliver the message until after the situation was cleared.
The stress of the situation caused a delay in sounding the siren on campus. While it should have been turned on at the same time the text message went out, staff weren’t able to log into the siren system until 10 minutes after the text.

Past university shooting incidents have provided insight for university officials and increased security standards for students today. What has history taught UT?

UT Tower Shooting (1966) brought the addition of a university police department, the first of it’s kind for american universities.
Columbine High School (1999) taught university officials to eliminate the situation
Virginia Tech (2007) taught university officials not to get distracted – search everywhere, rather than focusing on one area.

Check out the many UT social media channels that students, faculty, parents and the nation turned to for information on September 28.

Official UT Twitter | UT Polic Department Facebook | Be Safe Texas | BST Facebook | BST Twitter