Should active shooter training be required for UNC faculty, students? Trustees weigh in
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UNC Shooting
UNC professor Zijie Yan was fatally shot Aug. 28, 2023, in Chapel Hill, NC,, prompting an hourslong lockdown and questions about campus security. Yan’s graduate student has been charged with his murder. Here is ongoing News & Observer coverage about the killing, the campus response and the aftermath.
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Following two gun-related lockdowns on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus this semester, at least one member of the university’s Board of Trustees says active-shooter training should be required for faculty and students.
David Boliek, who has served on the board since 2019 and was its chair for two years until September, told The News & Observer Monday that though the university offers emergency response information and training resources to the campus community, he believes such information should be disseminated in a more direct way.
“I do think we owe students and faculty direct information and training,” Boliek said, while adding that he recognizes it is likely not “realistic” to reach full participation by everyone at the university.
The university offers voluntary active-shooter training through the campus police department by request, but does not require faculty, students or most staff to participate. The university received recommendations in a 2020 internal audit to require training at least for faculty and staff, but did not implement such requirements, as reported by The N&O.
Some UNC students recounted to The N&O in the days following the fatal Aug. 28 on-campus shooting that they felt their professors were not prepared for the emergency.
Boliek’s comments to The N&O follow similar remarks to his fellow board members in text messages the university provided to The N&O through a public records request.
In the messages, which appear to have been sent the day after the Aug. 28 on-campus shooting that left a professor dead, Boliek wrote to his fellow board members that it “sounds like we need a policy that REQUIRES faculty to go through training on lockdowns.” He added in a separate message that the university should also “REQUIRE students” to do so.
“Simply pushing the info may not be sufficient,” Boliek wrote in another message.
Speaking to The N&O Monday, Boliek compared the availability of information on active shooter responses at the university to user manuals that come with household appliances: “It’s there, but it’s not really something that an average person ... goes out and actively reads.”
UNC Police Chief Brian James previously told The N&O in an interview that “it is absolutely best practice to have as many people trained as we possibly can,” but said any mandates for training would need to be decided by university leadership.
More ‘buy-in’ for training
Boliek said he would defer to university administrators on what form required training at the university would take or how it would be implemented, but said he would like to see it become part of new student orientation and also presented to students in their “first days on campus.”
“It’s not necessarily in my lane to say what that form would be, but I would expect it to be efficient and productive and useful,” he said.
A UNC emergency preparedness guide, updated in January, encourages faculty to “clearly cover basic emergency preparedness techniques during the first week,” noting that “10 minutes of pre-planning can save lives.” Several students who spoke to The N&O following the Aug. 28 shooting said they did not recall their professors covering such information prior to the shooting, which took place at the start of the second week of classes this academic year.
Another trustee, Marty Kotis, did not specifically tell The N&O that he would like to see training required at the university, but he said he would like to see more “buy-in” across campus for the training and other emergency preparedness resources that are offered.
“I think that what I’d like to see is just a greater sense of active participation by everyone in this concept of security, both for the campus and for the area, and feeling more empowered to protect themselves and others,” Kotis said.
Kotis, pointing to Riley Howell, the slain UNC Charlotte student who has been hailed as a hero for preventing additional casualties in a 2019 shooting at that school, said he was “not advocating that students should take an active role” in emergency situations, but said he wants them to “feel more prepared and to feel like they they are able to help in their own defense as well.”
What’s next
UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz told members of the university Faculty Council at a Sept. 8 meeting that the university would “assess whether more required trainings should be considered.”
Boliek said he expects the board to receive a “full debrief” on the Aug. 28 shooting at an upcoming meeting, either in November or January, but did not comment on specific measures the board or the university might take.
Kotis said he sees a need “to make sure that law enforcement is a priority and is well funded” at the university, and to improve technology related to campus security, including video monitoring and license plate reader technology. James, the police chief, told trustees at a September meeting that his department was pursuing such technologies.
“You have this situation and [it] sort of highlights areas where we can always improve,” Boliek said. “And I do think the situation was generally handled well, but, you know, I’m a person who believes that we can always improve.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2023 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Should active shooter training be required for UNC faculty, students? Trustees weigh in."
