Staff Editorial: Communication to students must improve after shooting

Early on Friday morning, many St. Joe's students in the City Avenue apartments had their studying or sleep interrupted by the sound of gunfire from outside their window. An off-duty Philadelphia police officer had chased a suspect who had allegedly held up the nearest 7-Eleven convenience store into the Borgia parking lot. There, the officer shot the suspect, who later died at the University of Pennsylvania hospital.

The next day, rumors abounded as to what had actually happened. Very few had seen or heard reliable information about the incident; many students' idea of what happened was fuzzy at best. False reports of gun battles and police manhunts made their way around campus.

It's true that the Office of Security and Public Safety quickly contacted the Office of University Communications, which posted a notice on MySJU going over what had happened that night. Students who had the foresight to check there could have found out there was no threat to students or university faculty—and no gun battle in the Borgia parking lot.

But many, if not most, students do not immediately think to check their MySJU page for updates. Some waited patiently in their dorm rooms; some, returning from a night out, never knew what had gone on until they found a crime scene in front of their apartment building.

University officials could have cut down on harmful, scary rumors had they responded with an e-mail to students assuring them that there was no threat to their safety. That would have been a sensible middle route between sending text messages (which should be reserved for emergency situations and were rightly not used Friday morning) and a post on MySJU. Students with smartphones could have been alerted before they arrived back to their apartments, while avoiding waking up students sleeping in their rooms.

The shooting incident was a scary situation that was dealt with, for the most part, in an appropriate manner. It was a situation that strikes at the heart of many students' fears that Philadelphia's violence could make its way onto campus. More information, spread more broadly to students, would have been helpful in dispelling wild rumors and informing the university community of what really happened that night.