By Kaitlyn Lewis (News Editor)
(Sept. 4, 2014) — Kennesaw State held a conference this morning declaring itself “Storm Ready”, a title designated for certain universities which meet the National Weather Service’s (NWS) StormReady Program standards.
KSU is the first public university in Georgia to receive this status, and the 149th university in the United Sates.
KSU has been working towards achieving this status since April 2007, according to Robert Lang, the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Security and Safety. Lang said he began working with the university to improve KSU’s emergency operations plan, add more weather radios on campus and develop at Pop-up Override System which alerts students and faculty about severe weather approaching campus.
The KSU Security and Safety Coordinator, James Westbrook, demonstrated the Pop-up Override System during the conference today. In the event of an emergency, the pop-up will appear with instructions on all computers connected to the KSU network. “We fully utilized [the pop-up] for active shooters, hazardous materials, as well as tornadoes,” added Lang during the demonstration.
Westbrook will remain in contact with NWS officials in order to clearly communicate information about severe weather to KSU students and faculty. “[Westbrook] is actually working on getting a data collection platform right here on the university campus that will help us with temperatures, winds and precipitation. And then [he will be] a storm spotter right here, where I can call him, he can call us,” said NWS Storm Ready Program Director, Kent Frantz.
Frantz also presented President Papp with two “Storm Ready” signs to display on campus.
“The StormReady Program is designed to help communities prepare–prepare its citizens [and] its faculty and staff for being safe during severe weather,” said NWS Meteorologist Keith Stellman. He later stated that at one time, Georgia was only recognizing counties for the StormReady Program. “We felt like ‘communities’ does expand to universities… and so we decided to expand StormReady for universities,” Stellman added.
Papp and the other speakers at this conference emphasized the importance of educating KSU students and faculty on how to prepare for a storm. Part of this education for students should take place in orientations and first year classes, according to Papp.
Sophomore English Education major Madison Tompkins said he feels safe if severe weather was approaching KSU. “I’ve been [on campus] during storms, and I’ve felt safe,” said Tomkins.
Senior art major Ben Millican said, “I’m an art student, and I use the art building…I feel like we’re pretty prepared for tornadoes or anything that happens.”