It's unfortunate that horrible events serve as wake up calls. In this case, the Virginia Tech shooting was a definite wake up call for a lot of Universities and in some institutions it led to providing better alerts to students. The article (link below) reports on a $55,000 fine to Virginia Tech from the Department of Education for failing to provide a quick warning to the campus during the tragedy. Virginia Tech is planning to appeal and one of their arguments is that "timely" was no well defined and that their alerts during the day of the tragedy were "well within the standards at the time." I would like to challenge that last point. Perhaps I am spoiled by our University's amazing internet connectivity on campus (as reported in news reports and such), but given the technology at the time I don't think they were within any standards.
In connection to our discussion yesterday about University's mission and unity...I think technology is ONE of the better ways to promote this and maintain some cohesiveness.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-30-vatech30_ST_N.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment