Officials are closely following situation at Northern
HOUGHTON -- News of Northern's emergency spread quickly to colleagues at Michigan Tech, who understand as well as anyone that all threats must be taken seriously.
Though it was an ordinary Wednesday for Tech students, many had heard of the extraordinary circumstances unfolding at NMU and other schools in Marquette.
In the Student Affairs office, Les Cook, who also acts as Emergency Operations Center Director, was one of the many people looking for updates online.
"With emergency situations, every one of them is unique and different,” said Cook. “You have to be prepared to know how to respond to almost anything. The more you practice, the better you get at that."
Like Northern, Tech has a text-message alert system that they test every semester. They can also notify people through email and phone calls.
"It’s important to maintain a level of awareness to our surroundings and make sure we provide the safest environment we can for students, staff, and faculty here at Michigan Tech," said Daniel Bennett, Director of Public Safety.
One rumor surrounding Wednesday's threat was that it started as a post in a blog. If that has any truth, Tech's IT department says it would be possible to track down the person responsible, but that kind of search can be long and complicated.
“If a threat was made in a public blog post, it's in the public's best interest for it to be investigated,” said senior systems architect Matthew Buss. “There are rules to follow in doing that. I'm sure it's being done if it's appropriate."
If nothing else, Tech officials will continue following the situation at Northern and likely use the incident to improve their own emergency response plan.
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