New “pillars of safety” guard campus

As Rose-Hulman students returned to campus last weekend, many noticed three new poles crowned with peculiar structures remnicent of flying saucers. These "pillars of safety", as 2007 graduate Bob Urbe dubbed them, are new sirens installed while students were on spring break.

The sirens are part of a new initiative by Rose-Hulman to increase the school's ability to communicate with students in an emergency situation. "We're tying this into a cell phone/e-mail/text messaging alert that would broadcast the same alert through that system, if a student chooses to enroll in it. (We're not going to force people to it though)," commented Rose-Hulman's Manager of Environmental Health and Safety Mike Howard. "[IAIT] is also working on a plan to put in [Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)] telephones throughout campus so if we activate this system, the same alarms, same tones, same message would actually come through on the phone in the dorm room and the classroom and hallways." Rose-Hulman is now one of about 160-170 schools using the system.

In the event of a serious emergency such as a Tornado Warning or a dangerous person on campus, the sirens can be activated, which would set off a tone or siren for about fifteen seconds and follow with an announcement informing the community of the situation. "It'll be run out of [the office of] Public Safety," continued Howard. "We need some place that's going to be monitored 24/7, and Public Safety is the only operation that has an employee here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have their National Weather Service radio there; they will have the main computer."

The sirens also have a large amount of back-up power. They can be used for 30 minutes straight, if neccessary. Otherwise, the batteries will last for 30 hours when not in use.

When asked if there will be anything done to try and have the sirens blend into the background, Howard replied "We're going to do some landscaping around it once the dirt settles; probably put some flowers or mulch or stonage around to make it blend in to the landscape there." He also mentioned that it was necessary to put a siren next to Deming. "It was all based on the noise study that was done on campus in order to put it in the proper location for blockage from trees and buildings and anything else," he explained. "That yard, that's basically the highest pinnacle point of land that's on campus. The only piece of property right now, even in the master plan, does not appear to be disturbed is basically where it is now."

Howard assures campus that "by the time the kids come back to school in the fall, it'll all be greened over and built into the landscape."