On the first day of classes at UNC-Chapel Hill, Meg Zomorodi typically starts her courses off like many other professors on campus, with a review of the syllabus.
She’s taught at the university’s School of Nursing since 2008. But this year, her pre-health class of all freshmen kicked off with a different kind of review: an active shooter emergency plan.
Like a flight attendant who asks passengers if they are comfortable sitting in the exit row, Zomorodi asked her students who would be willing to step up if there was an active assailant on campus.
“Asking a student, are you willing to sit here? Would you be willing to shut the door if something like that were to happen?” Zomorodi said. “If they’re counting on me to sprint up and shut the door, it’s not going to happen.”
“I have to consider my own sense of self, of what I can do, and also the sense of community,” Zomorodi continued. “Together, we have to be vigilant.”
It’s been one year since an armed shooter killed a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, leading to a three-hour lockdown across campus.
Graduate student Tailei Qi was charged with the first-degree murder of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the department of applied physical sciences. A judge has since deemed him unfit for trial after two mental evaluations concluded he likely has untreated schizophrenia.
Students, faculty and community members called for change to UNC-Chapel Hill’s emergency response after the shooting and lockdown led to mass confusion on campus.
Some professors continued to teach classes during the lockdown, and students said they felt compelled to turn to social media for information because the university alert system, Alert Carolina, failed to keep them up to date.
UNC-Chapel Hill administrators also surveyed the campus community. Many respondents said they wanted the university to require active shooter training and drills, provide locks for all classroom doors, ensure emergency sirens can be heard in classroom buildings, among other changes.
Darrell Jeter runs UNC-Chapel Hill’s Emergency Management and Planning department. He said the university has made several improvements since the shooting. Most, Jeter said, are suggestions from an “after-action review” conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses.
One of the more recent changes is to the university’s emergency alert messaging system, Alert Carolina. Jeter said the campus community now will receive more routine and informative updates.
University administrators made changes to the alert system’s armed and dangerous person, fire and tornado warning messaging.
Before, the alert system’s message said people should go inside, avoid windows and shelter in place if an armed person was on campus.
!Alert Carolina!
— Alert Carolina (@AlertCarolina) August 28, 2023
Emergency: Armed, dangerous person on or near campus. Go inside now; avoid windows. https://t.co/6mTpT0X7HF
Administrators have changed that to a “run, hide or fight” message.
Jeter said his team will now also send out an “all clear” message when the immediate threat has been resolved.
“(But) we want to make sure the campus understands that while the threat is no longer lingering, we may still have to shift our campus operating status,” Jeter said. “There may not be an immediate return to normal activity.”
Another new addition is an emergency preparedness training tailored for faculty.
The training takes about 25 minutes and is entirely online. It has four modules: be informed, be prepared, take action, and other incidents. There’s also a section about the university’s security app, Carolina Ready, a list of safety information faculty should share with their students, and a reminder to not teach classes during a lockdown.
“If there is an active threat and (faculty) need to secure in place, it provides some guidance as well as visual demonstrations on how to take each of those actions,” Jeter said. “And (how) to support and provide guidance to their students in the classroom.”
For now, the training is optional. Jeter said the provost office is responsible for mandating trainings, but his team is “strongly encouraging and expecting” faculty to complete it.
“With this initial rollout, there is an understanding that we are still within the first year of the tragedy that impacted our campus,” Jeter said. “We want to be thoughtful about how we really encourage and put this resource into faculty’s hands, understanding that for some of them, it’s still a very real and stressful topic for them.”
Zomorodi said for her, completing the online training wasn’t a difficult choice.
“I teach primarily first-years,” Zomorodi said. “I want those students, when they call their parents and say I had my first class — to say my professor made me feel safe. That’s the reason why I did it, because as a parent myself, I’d be thinking about them.”
This summer, Zomorodi also opted to take an in-person training campus police held for her department. An officer walked her team through the building’s exits, provided a list of emergency numbers, and talked through response strategies.
“The online university training was me doing an online module,” Zomorodi said. “This was me going with my coworkers, talking about what we would do. For us to talk about it and have this shared experience — different from the shared experience we had in the fall — it was really powerful.”
Zomorodi said she thinks the training, or at least the online portion, should be mandatory for all faculty.
“If there’s something that with your own life circumstances is additionally triggering for you, then I think there’s an exception to that requirement,” she said. “But it’s hard for me to understand how somebody might not want to take it when it’s preparing you for something that could literally be life and death.”
Currently, the university only has customized training for faculty. Jeter said his team will start working on a training for staff next, and the last training to roll out will be for students.
“We’re focusing on making sure that we roll out more targeted trainings to those two groups (faculty and staff), because those are the ones that really have the expectation to provide leadership and guidance to our students,” Jeter said.
Jeter said his team is also reviewing and testing their own emergency preparedness, including their communication, response and recovery plans. They are also reviewing the university’s camera systems and locking mechanisms, as well as ensuring everyone is properly trained on how to use them during an emergency.
Last year, the university also approved a contract to install license plate readers throughout campus.
“Our UNC police officers, they can’t be in all places at all times,” Jeter said. “And this technology allows for us to make more informed decisions about the status of our campus at any given time.”
In Zomorodi’s classroom, there’s now a button that she can hit to shut and lock all of the doors in her classroom.
Since the shooting, Zomorodi has been making some changes of her own. She now has the university’s emergency numbers saved in her phone. Every time she enters a room, she notes all of the exits. And she’s been volunteering with an on-campus organization that brings dogs on campus to help cheer students up.
She’s also advocating for other faculty members to prepare themselves for future emergencies.
“Our safety bubble got burst last year,” Zomorodi said. “When that happens, your awareness of safety changes.”
“Do I feel educated? Yes. Do I feel supported with the changes that they’ve made? Yes,” Zomorodi continued. “Do I feel like it could happen again? Unfortunately, yes. The difference is that now I have some skills that I’ve reflected on that I can use, but hopefully never.”
