PSC 5173 – Bureaucracy and Politics University of Oklahoma – Spring 2014 Project Group 1 – Prof. Alisa Fryar

Student Survey: The OU Emergency Response Plan

 

The Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois, and Purdue University shootings, as well as two false emergency event reports at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in 2014 all indicate that understanding universities’ reactions and preparedness plans for on-campus shootings are necessary and more important than ever.  University notification systems can have an enormous effect on how students and first responders react and understand the situation.  Cell phones, e-mail, and social media are being increasingly used to transmit warnings instantaneously and disseminate information to affected at-risk individuals.  This new method of communication is designed to provide more information and decrease the amount of confusion that, in turn, could help save lives. 

 

Our research will examine two recent false alarms on the OU campus as a case study to better understand the effects of social media warning systems had on the reactions and behaviors of those who received those notifications during these two events.  On-line surveys were used to enable a simple regression research design analysis to challenge the null hypothesis advanced by skeptics espousing that OU emergency alert notifications sent to the OU community have no impact on student or faculty behavior responses.

 

This student survey is strictly voluntary.  No information provided will be published and all data compiled will be confidential.   This research project was completed in fulfillment of the group research project requirement of Political Science 5183:  “Bureaucracy and Politics” under Professor Alisa Fryar, and was conducted with the consent and oversight of the Department of Political Sciences, University of Oklahoma. 

No questions were intentionally worded such that desired or engineered responses would result.  All project researchers have read and agreed to uphold the IRB ethical standards statement, as follows: “I have read and agree to uphold the ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human research participants as they are described in the Belmont Report issued by the Federal Office of Health, Education & Welfare. This proposal and the attached materials meet the guidelines described by the APA Code of Ethics.”