The Madison Police Department received word of a man threatening suicide in the Village of Oregon just seven miles south of Madison on April 10. According to Public Safety Director Jim Bottoni, The man made threatening comments in reference to the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Wright Street. The Madison Police deemed these comments to be credible and alerted Madison College due to the center’s proximity to campus.

Madison College Public Safety sent out a WolfPack alert saying that the Truax campus was on lock down as of 8:14 a.m. The lock down was lifted at 8:42 a.m.

Bottoni was in Denver, Colorado at a conference when the lock down occurred but he was debriefed after the incident.  He was pleased to hear that the majority of the campus was cooperative during the lock down. While the threat never materialized, this incident gave the College an opportunity to test the campus alert system.

After the incident, Public Safety found a few areas where they could improve their system. “All of the monitors that are in the common areas of the district are supposed to receive the identical emergency systems that the phone systems receive … that didn’t happen,” Bottoni said. This technical issue has since been fixed and tested.

Public Safety staff are also discussing how they should alert people who are outside of the buildings and do not receive the WolfPack Alerts. “A lot of colleges do it differently. Some use lights, some use strobes, some use loud speakers,” Bottoni said. If students have ideas about how they should be alerted in this situation, they should contact the Public Safety Office.

President Daniels released a special bulletin following the incident “in the interest of clarifying the situation and suppressing rumors that are often a consequence of such an event.” While the majority of the community was cooperative; others brushed it off as a mere inconvenience.

Liberal Arts Transfer student Connor Green understood that these measures are necessary for the safety of the College Community. “It definitely seemed like overkill given the situation, but hey, so is wearing a helmet until you crash and it saves your life,” he said.

Bottoni knows that these occurrences can be disruptive to schedules but students should take these situations seriously. “We really do have their best interest at heart when we do this,” he said.

“We will never issue a WolfPack Alert or text messages on campus phones if we don’t think there is a credible threat to the welfare of our campus community,” Daniels wrote.

The most effective way to become informed about these incidences is to sign up for WolfPack Alerts. To do so, go to http://madisoncollege.edu/public-safety-services.