At the Brown University Community Council meeting on Tuesday, Walter Hunter, vice president of administration and the University's chief risk officer, made an unusual request that everyone present turn on their cell phones. A moment later, a chorus of phones around the room began to ring. The BUCC members answered their phones to hear a recording of Hunter's voice say, "This is Walter Hunter. Please let everyone in the room know you got the message by saying, 'I got it.' Thank you. You may hang up."
The unusual flurry of cell phone activity was Hunter demonstrating the University's new emergency contact system, a system called MIR3 which enables administrators to contact students and faculty via cell phone, text message, e-mail, fax or landline phone. Hunter said University officials were looking for such a system even before the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in April.
In addition to taking part in the emergency alert demonstration, BUCC members discussed the rules governing political speakers on campus and key University environmental initiatives, notably that $350,000 had been committed to new community environmental projects.
Following the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee's recommendations last spring that Brown invest in environmentally-friendly endeavors, Simmons commissioned $150,000 toward projects that will decrease greenhouse gas emissions, raise environmental awareness and change people's behavior on campus and in Providence. At the meeting, Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, announced that the Sidney E. Frank Foundation would add a $200,000 gift to that sum, making a total of $350,000 available for environmental initiatives on campus.
The money will support student, faculty and staff projects that deal with sustainability and energy efficiency in the local community. A committee will be formed to oversee the distribution of the funding. "This is a community issue for all of us to weigh in on," Huidekoper said. "We should advise the administration on how to manage this."
A University statement about the Sidney Frank gift listed possible energy efficiency projects such as distributing compact fluorescent light bulbs to the local community, education initiatives for students in area public schools to learn about energy issues and climate change and increasing the energy efficiency of low-cost housing.
Huidekoper also announced that the University will reduce its carbon emissions by 38 to 42 percent by the year 2020, reducing significantly the approximately 73,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide Brown emitted last year. However, the decrease will be based on last year's total square footage of campus buildings, Huidekoper said, and will not restrict University growth and building. "I wouldn't want to be the one to limit the future growth of Brown for any concerns," Huidekoper said.
The student and faculty representatives to the BUCC had many suggestions for increasing the University's energy efficiency, including community-based projects in conjunction with the Swearer Center for Public Service, changing parking laws so people do not have to move their cars during the day and building showers for faculty members who bike to campus.
The demonstration of the new emergency contact system was the other surprise of the meeting. In the past, administrators relied on bulk e-mails to send a campus-wide message, but Hunter said that method is not perfect because e-mail can take "quite a bit of time" to reach all students, faculty and staff. The new MIR3 system catalogs contact information for each student so that it can automatically send an emergency message, contacting students through multiple modes if necessary.
Hunter said MIR3 was ultimately chosen because, unlike similar systems, it has the ability to send text messages to students. "Text messaging is the preferred method of communication used by students on campus," Hunter said. MIR3 also allows students to text back to indicate, for example, whether they were able to evacuate a building or whether they need help.
An e-mail was sent to all students in late September requesting they supply their cell phone numbers in case of an emergency. So far, Hunter said, 1,856 students had indicated they would be willing to supply their numbers, while 65 said they would not and 63 responded that they did not have a phone.
The University is also planning to install a campus-wide siren system to be used in cases of extreme emergency. For example, Hunter said, the siren might notify the campus of a tornado or a shooter but probably not a hurricane or a blizzard. Hunter said discussions are currently under way with the College Hill Neighborhood Association, the Providence Police Department, the city government and other area universities regarding the siren's implementation.
Finally, Michael Chapman, vice president of public affairs and University relations, and Tim Leshan, director of government relations and community affairs, reported on the complicated set of rules governing political speakers on campus with regard to the University's nonprofit status. The issue is particularly relevant given the approaching 2008 election.
American politicians and political candidates are permitted to speak on campus, though they may not encourage listeners to vote for them or donate to their campaigns. Leshan said the receptions that commonly follow University-sponsored lectures and allow for more intimate conversations with the lecturer would probably be prohibited and seen as too political by the Internal Revenue Service.
Students, faculty and staff are also not allowed to raise money for political purposes in any venue of the University, using University resources or acting as a representative of the University, Leshan said.
This raised many questions among the BUCC members. Simmons wanted to know if making a personal donation to a political campaign from a computer on campus would be problematic. When Leshan suggested that, according to the IRS, such activities should probably be done off campus, Simmons replied, "I live on campus."
A student asked, "What is the difference between Fred Thompson giving a policy talk and having a chat over cookies?"
Other BUCC members worried about the specifics of using University space to organize political groups, such as student groups that have formed in support of presidential candidates. Leshan said a student group may use University facilities to plan a campaign rally but may not hold a rally in University buildings.
