WTAMU has renewed safety awareness for threats made to the school. An email from the University Police Department has been sent to all of the faculty and staff to ensure all know the proper procedures to follow in case of a threat to the University.

“No fundamental changes have been made to the procedures, just renewed awareness,” Officer Patrick Coggins, director of police operations said.

If students suspect anything, they should notify the police; however, it is unlikely that a student would receive the threat Coggins said.

A checklist was attached to the email sent to faculty and staff to help officials know how to respond to the threat. The checklist includes questions to ask the caller, how to determine what is conveyed through the call, and to get investigative leads.

At the beginning of each semester, Residential Living holds a training session called “Behind Closed Doors” that assures the Residential Living staff are properly equipped to deal with any situation that may possibly occur.

David Wilson, director of Residential Living, said emergency procedure binders are used as a refresher and are held at each desk in all of the dorms.

The training is made up of skits and is a hands-on experience for the newer residential assistants (RA) as well as the veteran RA’s to learn all of the procedures.

“The binder is there with ‘1, 2, 3 steps,’” Jon Behrens, senior director of Residential Living said.

The training covers everything from bomb threats to depression.

One of the updates made to the checklists for the binder was cell phone usage. If a person was to use his cell phone to call UPD, he is told to get away from the building in question because it could possibly set off a bomb. The procedures are reviewed annually and updated as frequently as needed in order to guarantee safety for students. Residential Living corresponds often with UPD in order to make necessary changes as needed.

“We feel somewhat isolated in WT. I hope that we don’t take that for granted,” Behrens said.