Editorial: BruinAlert should update UCLA community as situations progress

For the first time this quarter, the Office of Emergency Management successfully used BruinAlert to inform students of potential danger near campus.

However, the BruinAlert sent to the student body Thursday regarding the alleged hostage situation on Tiverton Avenue came nearly an hour after the Daily Bruin had already confirmed and tweeted about the incident, and with little clarity.

Receiving a message at all was a vast improvement. After three weeks of ignored crimes, power outages and a Daily Bruin editorial criticizing BruinAlert’s inactivity, it seems like the program may finally be doing its basic job description.

According to UCLA’s Office of Emergency Management, a BruinAlert is meant to send “official information during an emergency crisis situation that disrupts normal operation of the UCLA campus or threatens the health or safety of members of the campus community.” If the office plans to continue assuming this responsibility, it should be using BruinAlert to update students with clear descriptions and instructions as situations progress and not just send one-off, vague texts.

Students who passed through Tiverton Avenue between 4 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. that day would not have known about the potential threat if they solely relied on BruinAlert. Instead, their introduction to the matter came in the form of SWAT cars and helicopters surrounding the area.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: BruinAlert should be used more consistently during campus emergencies

In this case, students had to rely on news outlets and friends’ text messages to know that streets were blocked off. Concerned family members saw the news and contacted students worried about their safety before BruinAlert was able to get out the message.

With stronger relationships with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and university police than news outlets, it should not take long for BruinAlert to send out a message.

If, as the UCLA Office of Emergency Management claims, it only takes 45 seconds to send out an alert, the process of sending out a BruinAlert should only take a few minutes after law enforcement officials or authorities verify a situation as a threat.

And since BruinAlert reaches a vast number of students almost instantly, it can be more effective at keeping students continually informed about an emergency than news reports. That’s why BruinAlert needs to provide a stream of updates on major events, rather than a single warning and an all-clear signal when it’s over.

There needs to be reform within the UCLA Office of Emergency Management. Whether it’s expediting the verification process with officials or expanding the scope of their definition of an “emergency,” BruinAlert needs to be improved. The BruinAlert system should be the first outlet for finding out about potential danger, not the last.

Additionally, in order to be an effective communication system, BruinAlert has to continue to update students on the progress of the situation. Without consistent updates, BruinAlert is failing to effectively protect students.

The campus community should never have to learn about potential dangers from secondhand or thirdhand sources. BruinAlert needs to be that quick and effective liaison between officials and the student body.