While the exact details of Thursday’s stabbing in Young Hall remain unclear, the horrific nature of the incident remains strikingly evident and disconcerting.
This editorial board, first and foremost, feels the need to express its genuine sympathy for the victim. While doing so may seem like more of a formality than a true expression of feeling, we are all students ““ just like the victim, just like the suspect and just like the lab students who watched the violence unfold.
While we certainly don’t fully understand the pain and trauma those closest to the situation must have been coping with for the past six days, the fact that the stabbing occurred during what would otherwise be normal, day-to-day school activities hits home for all of us.
The shock and apprehension we feel at the seeming randomness of the event is real, and we could not be more relieved to know that the victim is now in stable condition.
We are infinitely grateful to everyone who helped aid the victim’s recovery. The teaching assistants that were present acted heroically and swiftly in helping stop the victim’s bleeding and get her into the hands of medical professionals.
From there, we commend the EMTs and the talented staff at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center that helped save the victim’s life, as well as the staff members from UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services who were immediately available for students who witnessed the event.
And while this board feels that the school could have handled certain aspects of communication more actively on the day of the emergency, we appreciate that UCLA has a mass-messaging system such as BruinAlert in the first place.
Thursday was the first true campus-wide emergency that tested the efficiency of the BruinAlert system, and it worked. While the precise wording of the message ““ what information was and wasn’t included ““ could be debated, the fact is that without such a mass-communication system in place, the school would have no way to quickly disburse the pertinent information necessary to keep students safe.
There was, however, a major disconnect between the vague text message in the afternoon ““ which merely said that there was an emergency situation at Young Hall and that a suspect was in custody ““ and the next campus-wide correspondence six hours later: a letter from Chancellor Gene Block that finally explained that there was an attack.
While this board acknowledges the care with which UCLA had to handle this situation, certainly a follow-up message after the original BruinAlert ““ one with more specific information about what occurred and how ““ would have been helpful and informative for students who may have missed local coverage by the Daily Bruin, UCLA Newsroom or the Los Angeles Times.
But the exact logistics of how campus safety alerts can best reach the relevant audience can be examined on a different day. For now, this board’s primary concern remains with the victim as we continue to hope for her full and swift recovery.