Straight Talk from the President - March 18, 2008
Dear Colleagues,
Hopefully all of you are now aware of the events of March 11 when a non-student, accompanied by a student, walked into the Student Success Center, located on the second floor of the ULM Library. A ULM employee noticed a pistol strapped to the non-student’s waist and called university police. Police arrived at the scene within 2-3 minutes and immediately arrested the individual, who was then booked at the Ouachita Parish jail. Police later determined that the individual was carrying a BB pistol.
Subsequent to this event on our campus a student appeared on a local high school campus with a handgun. Neither event led to any harm to students or employees, but it does highlight the need for all of us to be aware of our surroundings. As I said in my letter to all of you after the situation on our campus, “This incident says more about the need for you to sign up in FirstCall than words could express.”
FirstCall is not an event or weather notification system. Students were adamant that they would sign up to the FirstCall system if we could guarantee that they would not be hounded by constant notifications. To be effective, FirstCall will only be used in the event that an imminent threat or a crisis currently exits on our campus.
I urge you to follow the simple instructions and submit your appropriate contact information. As a member of the ULM community, you are registered with FirstCall through your ULM email account. Your information is protected, and you will ONLY be notified in the case of a campus emergency. That is the only purpose of FirstCall.
The implementation of FirstCall Interactive Network is a statewide initiative funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents and supported by the University of Louisiana System.
During an emergency ONLY, FirstCall Interactive Network will notify the ULM community by the methods mentioned above. The FirstCall system also allows for text-to-voice features that will send messages to landlines and will compliment ULM's existing electronic signage and the ULM homepage.
I want to encourage each of you to ensure that your contact information is accurate. Information regarding this initiative can be found at: www.ulm.edu/ens.
Also, an FAQ is now available to answer questions you may have when updating your contact information (after receiving your FirstCall log-in information): www.ulm.edu/ens/ensfaq.html.
After reviewing the FAQ, if you have additional questions, please e-mail: firstcallquestions@ulm.edu.
We will continue to make campus safety a priority at every opportunity. ULM recently received a $2 million capital outlay appropriation for a campus security project. ULM plans to use these funds to install additional video surveillance and emergency call boxes, enhanced lighting, electronic controlled access, a mechanical keying system for the entire campus, a campus-wide emergency alert siren, and a backup generator. We anticipate completing these improvements by the fall 2009 semester.
As always, we welcome your feedback concerning this latest improvement in campus safety for our university community. Please take a moment to provide your information to FirstCall. Effective communication—especially in a crisis—can make all the difference.
Sincerely,
James E. Cofer
President