 "Photo: Michael Rice")
A human error delayed the delivery of a campus-wide e-mail alert aimed to warn students of an incident involving a suspicious person that police say may have been carrying a hunting rifle.
Last Sunday around 10 p.m. three female freshman walking back to their rooms in Williamson spotted a suspicious looking man near Philbrook Dining Hall, pointing what appeared to be a hunting rifle in their direction.
According to police, the women described seeing a white male in his 40s wearing a black jacket and khaki pants holding a long black object. The women fled towards Devine Hall where they immediately called police. Police arrived at the scene one minute and 12 seconds after dispatch was contacted, but they did not find the suspect.
"The women did the right thing. They ran away and contacted police," said Scott Chesney, director of Residential Life.
However, it was almost a full 24 hours after the initial report of the incident, around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, before Upper Quad Hall Director Matt Petersons sent the first e-mail warning his residents of the nearby incident.
The first campus-wide e-mail warning of the incident was not sent until 8:22 a.m. on Tuesday; nearly a day and a half lapsed before all students received official e-mail notification of the incident.
Junior Colleen Kelley did not find out about the campus alert from her e-mail, but rather from a lab instructor. Kelley said she was concerned about the sighting.
"I think they should have warned us when the incident happened especially in light of Virginia Tech because of the possibility of it being real," she said.
So what caused the breakdown of the alert system?
According to various sources, the delay was a result of a human error and witness uncertainty.
"Initially there was a misunderstanding about what was seen and what wasn't," Chesney said. "Initially supposedly the women did not report a gun."
UNH Deputy Police Chief Paul Dean also said the confusion slowed the decision to send a campus-wide alert, however, UNH police posted an alert on their website within two hours of working with the girls after a second interview on Monday.
"If the girls had said [on Sunday], 'Listen, a guy pulled a gun out and pointed it at us,' then that would have been a lot different of a situation," Dean said. "It wasn't until the next afternoon until they were convinced that what they saw was a gun."
Once police re-interviewed the women about the details surrounding the report, more than half a day had passed, Chesney said. However, when authorities tried to finally send the alert message, they were unable to transmit it.
"It was a limitation of Directed Communication. It was a human error," said Kim Billings, spokesperson for UNH Media Services.
According to Billings, the employee attempting to send the Directed Communication alert e-mail to all UNH students, faculty, and staff, incorrectly typed an address. Because of the error, the e-mail would not send, and staff could not contact technical support for help via e-mail as it was already after 5 p.m. on Monday and employees had left their offices for the evening.
Billings said she was not aware that the e-mail had not been sent until around 4:30 Tuesday morning.
"This simply can't happen again," Billings said in a telephone interview Monday afternoon. "They need to pick up the phone and call somebody."
"To me this one was a series of unfortunate errors that were no one's fault, really. It's very frustrating when relying on computers. In this case it wasn't enough, the computer system wasn't enough. Luckily there was no negative outcome," Chesney said.
In April, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed two people in a campus dorm around 7:15 a.m. Two hours later, police had not found a suspect and failed to close the campus after the murders. 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui then shot and killed 30 more people on campus and finally himself.
"There is never going to be anything foolproof," Chesney said. "We are all reacting in the wake of Virginia Tech."
Petersons said that sensitivities are heightened on campus because of the shootings in Virginia, but in the four years he has worked as a hall director there have only been a handful of campus alerts about suspicious people.
"And we have a campus alert system that generally works," he said. "There are a lot of operations to keep us as safe as possible."
Petersons cited that residence halls are kept locked 24 hours a day, the blue light system and police escort program provide added security and the UNH PD are on call at all times in case of emergencies.
"I have complete trust with everyone involved in these situations. They do an excellent job of responding to these incidents," he said.
Chesney agreed.
"We're all in this one to do the right thing," he said.
Dean said the university plans to implement more security measures in the future.
"We are in the final stages of selecting a text messaging system and reverse 911 for the university campus," he said.
He did not specify exact dates due to continuing negotiations about the systems.
For more information about security programs at UNH, visit www.unh.edu/upd.
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