Nothing ever happens in Princeton?

How many of your meetings this year have begun with a discussion of the nearest fire exits and emergency assembly areas?

Chances are, none. However, the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, along with the Department of Public Safety, is trying to change that by holding emergency preparedness training sessions, open to faculty, staff and students.

“Our goal was to do some general awareness training about emergency management here at the University and make sure people understood information about PTENS, as well as explain what happens when there is a PTENS message on campus, so they’re more familiar with resources and what’s likely to happen,” Director of Public Safety Paul Ominsky said.

The directors of the training sessions hope that attendance will lead to greater preparedness among the student body and those affiliated with campus.

“We assume that we can always improve our readiness and how we react to emergency,” Associate Director of EHS for Laboratory Safety Steve Elwood said.

As a recipient of many an automated phone call, voice mail, text message and email, I attended last Thursday’s session to see what the training was all about. The trainings, titled “Emergency Preparedness for the Campus Community,” are run by Kelly States and Keller Taylor of Public Safety.

Before discussing the purpose of the meeting, or where the restrooms were, States told us that the fastest exit was — surprise — the one we had just entered through. The nearest assembly area was across the street.

“Why would you want to cross the street?” Taylor asked later in the training, referring to the location of the specified emergency assembly areas designed for people in affected buildings to congregate.

“To get to the other side!” came the response from a woman in the back.

In the past, trainings have been held for emergency coordinators — designated staff from each department on campus who are responsible for taking charge during an emergency. Rather than focusing on just one campus group, the current training sessions are meant to serve all members of the community who might find themselves on campus during an emergency.

“The information is useful for anyone on the campus community, so we didn’t feel it was so different for students or faculty or staff that we needed to separate those audiences,” States explained. DPS Director of Operations Stefanie Karp added that in the past, students have generally followed directions well during emergencies, so organizers of the training session chose to focused on awareness on how to handle emergency situations anywhere on campus, rather than information specific to certain locations.

“There’s not a specific outline for each room or each building, but they have to be aware of where the exits are, what to do in the room that they find themselves in,” States said.

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States ran through a number of misconceptions students often have of emergencies on campus. The first, and perhaps most common, misconception, States explained, is that emergency situations don’t happen at Princeton.

The Triangle Club’s catchy lyrics in their song, “Nothing Ever Happens in Princeton,” welcome new students to campus with the prevailing metaphor of “the Orange Bubble” and the implied safety that encompasses student life. States made it clear that emergencies have happened in the past; there have been fires on campus, lab accidents and bomb threats, all of which have been taken very seriously and resulted in mass evacuations.

In those cases, the Office of the President and the Office of the Executive Vice President are the administrative officials making “policy decisions,” including the choice to keep the University open and operating. P-Safe and EHS make “operational decisions,” which include the actual handling of the emergency.

For example, during an emergency, P-Safe can easily lock all external doors. However, States noted this only sends external doors into “nighttime mode” – meaning anyone with Prox access can still enter the building. In an active shooter situation, for example, if the shooter still has after-hours access, locking the external doors will not drastically change the situation.

P-Safe also sends out Princeton Telephone and E-mail Notification System (PTENS) messages to student cell phones, Princeton and alternate email addresses and all campus phones. They can also use the blue-light towers, found around the campus, to broadcast messages. While texts can reach cell phones almost instantaneously, other devices like desk phones can take up to 30 minutes to receive the notification.

Generally, PTENS alerts are scripted messages, and come from either 231-77 or 630-79 as texts, or from609-258-6356as phone calls. States noted that messages from any of these addresses are unlikely to be hoaxes.

States emphasized the need to actually follow the directions in the message, which typically contains very little information.

The five most common messages are evacuate building, evacuate campus, remain indoors, shelter in place and lockdown.As a pop quiz, Taylor asked us how we might respond to each message. Answers varied from simply repeating the message back (for example, evacuating the building when told to do so) to building blockades in the case of an active-shooter lockdown.

Public Safety will host one more session on Nov. 14 and also createdself-guided online presentations. Students can sign upherefor the trainings as well.

Perhaps, nothing ever happens in Princeton, but don't you want to be ready if it does?