{"id":4995,"date":"2021-10-21T10:55:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4995"},"modified":"2021-10-21T10:55:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:55:49","slug":"threat-to-university-property-pauses-morning-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4995","title":{"rendered":"Threat to University Property Pauses Morning Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emergency situation at Concordia University Chicago on Tuesday morning paused all classes, athletic practices, and all other campus operations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Students, faculty, and university personnel received an alert at 9:19 a.m. stating, \u201cEMERGENCY! Officers are responding to a problem on the main campus. Calmly evacuate buildings and proceed immediately to the football field\/track.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An email from the Emergency Response Team following the event stated that the university had received an anonymous threat to campus property.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students and campus community members received the alert through the university\u2019s emergency communication system, called Rave Guardian. <\/span>The app provides university officials a quick communication method to several forms of messaging, including email and social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to one of my colleagues, and she got an alert on her phone,\u201d said education and forensics professor James Tallmon. \u201cWe immediately rounded up everyone in our area, and proceeded to the football field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Word of mouth helped ensure that everyone who didn’t receive the message electronically knew to head to the football field. Sammy Valdez, a junior, was at the baseball field when the alert went out. \u201cI had no idea,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cI was getting my throwing program in with my teammate, and my coach told me to check my phone.” <\/span><\/p>\n

“Normally, texts like these would say ‘test,’ but I knew it was a big deal when I didn\u2019t see that,\u201d Valdez said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other students woke up to a door knock, rather than an alarm clock. \u201cI woke up 20 minutes ago, and don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on,\u201d said senior Howie Hatton. \u201cA lot is going on for sure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon arrival, many students asked their classmates and friends what was going on. \u201cI\u2019m unaware of what\u2019s happening right now,\u201d said freshman Tyler Dorsch. \u201cI\u2019m confused and concerned because I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By 9:40 a.m., clusters of students gathered in circles on the turf or the bleachers, while others stood on the track. At 10:12 a.m., a second message said local authorities had arrived on site, and \u201cto expect another update within 30 minutes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Dean of Students Kathy Gebhardt addressed the crowd over the stadium loudspeakers. Dean Gebhardt reminded everyone to remain calm and on the field as the investigation continued. The all-clear would not be issued for at least another hour, she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Dean Gebhardt spoke, students found ways to occupy their time during the delay. Some students walked around the track, others played football, and the men\u2019s soccer team played a game of tips. <\/span><\/p>\n

Members of the STUNT team practiced some of their routine in the end-zone as a way to pass time. \u201cWe do find comfort in our teammates, and having fun with each other,\u201d said STUNT team junior Grace Hammill. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to bond as a team right now, put aside some of the concern, and have fun right.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
CUC men’s soccer players play a game to pass time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professors and other university personnel acknowledged <\/span>the students\u2019 creativity during an uncertain situation. \u201cI think it’s phenomenal to see our people out here working on their skills and enjoying themselves,\u201d said athletic director Pete Gnan. \u201cIt\u2019s like an open gym!\u201d<\/p>\n

The all-clear was given at 10:40 a.m., and stated campus operations would return to normal with daily chapel at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A final email from the CUC Emergency Response Team at 11:17 a.m. confirmed initial reports of a threat to property, and said that university operations would resume. In addition, the email thanked emergency responders for their diligent work to bring this situation to a successful conclusion. \u201cEverything went really smoothly,\u201d said Dean Gebhardt. \u201cI think we\u2019ve learned from prior incidents that communication is key. We sent out several messages with updates to the campus community, and the police were great partners in this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are no reports of anyone harmed during the situation. Despite the inconvenience, many students and faculty felt that the few minutes outside on a sunny autumn day was a pleasant unintended break during midterm week. \u201cAll in all, it was very smooth, and we\u2019re just grateful for the nice weather,\u201d said Dean Gebhardt. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An emergency situation at Concordia University Chicago on Tuesday morning paused all classes, athletic practices, and all other campus operations. Students, faculty, and university personnel received an alert at 9:19 a.m. stating, \u201cEMERGENCY! Officers are responding to a problem on the main campus. Calmly evacuate buildings and proceed immediately to the football field\/track.\u201d An email […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":4996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concordia-news","category-showcase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}