MSU Spokesman Jason Cody said the discrepancy was caused by the alert system purging old student information and replacing it with current student information. The alert system replaces past student information every semester on the first day of class.
Cody said the university is working on a way to make the update process smoother.
“We are working on ways to close that gap because we are not happy with the current transition,” Cody said. “It is always important to remember, though, no alert system is perfect due to the constraints of technology. The goal of our alerts is to ensure as many people as possible know about a situation and make sure their fellow Spartans know as well.”
Before the alleged shooter was apprehended by police, many buildings on campus halted activities. Brody Square employees corralled students and other faculty members into a storage facility closet after one of them had received the alert. Other departments took to Twitter to alert students about which buildings were shut down.
“On Monday, some MSU departments incorrectly put out information regarding what was going on,” Cody said. “However, those departments were simply trying to do what they thought was best in the interests of safety. While we do not direct units or departments to cease operations, if those units feel that is a safe call, they may do so.”
Although Cody said the alert was sent out at approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 12, many students did not get an alert at all.
Graduate student Charles Loelius lives a few blocks away from Coolidge Road, where the second shooting and a standoff with police took place.
Loelius said he heard ambulance sirens around 11 a.m., but never received any information from MSU, despite being an enrolled student signed up for the alerts and being on MSU payroll.
He said he was scared and saddened once he found out what happened and was a little angry he didn’t receive an alert for that day’s shootings, even though he received alerts for other shooter scares that happened earlier this year.
“I think they’re spending too much time explaining why their system isn’t perfect,” Leolius said. “I think they should be spending more time making steps to ensure their alert system is working properly.”
Although MSU advised on-campus buildings to secure in place or evacuate if they felt it necessary to do so on May 12, every off-campus shooter situation is treated differently.
During the shooting on the night of Friday, January 31 that resulted in the death of MSU student Dominique Nolff, MSU did not advise buildings to secure in place or evacuate.
Even though the shooting occurred on the 200 block of Cedar Street and was considerably closer to campus residence halls than the May 12 shootings, MSU police did not send out an alert until nearly two hours and 20 minutes after the shooting was reported.
At the time, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said police had waited until they had all the correct information to send out an alert.
“Had there been an active shooter on campus, we would have alerted students since that would be an immediate threat,” McGlothian-Taylor said in a previous interview with The State News.
McGlothian-Taylor was out of the office throughout much of last week and could not be reached for further comment.
Capt. Penny Fischer, an emergency manager for the MSU Police Department who oversees the MSU Alert system, was also out of her office last week and did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Cody said when an off-campus shooting does occur, MSU police generally rely on what police department is handling the situation for updates and threat information.
“In the Cedar Village incident, MSU police were notified by East Lansing police as that situation was developing that there was not a threat to campus. Thus, only a notification was sent and not an alert,” Cody said. “This incident was seen as a good example of how we worked on messaging together.”
Staff reporter Derek Gartee contributed to this article.
