Brown plans to test a proposed emergency siren system by the end of the year, Darrell Brown, director for state and community relations, told a meeting of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association Oct. 24.
"Brown is proposing an emergency warning siren for the University ... directly in response to Virginia Tech," Brown said, referring to the shootings in Blacksburg, Va., last April when 32 people were murdered.
Brown officials spoke at the neighborhood meeting to inform community members about the siren system. Such community outreach events must be completed before the Providence City Council will consider an ordinance granting approval for the sirens, Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin told The Herald earlier this month.
The University has been working with the Providence Police Department and the Providence Fire Department to develop plans to integrate the campus siren system with the city's 911 emergency service.
"We have to go backwards to the old days of siren warning systems," said Leo Messier, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, at the meeting last Wednesday. "I give Brown credit for having a system like that in place."
Stephen Morin, Brown's director of environmental health and safety, spoke about the details of the system. Before the siren could be sounded, he said, certain University officials - most likely from the Department of Public Safety - would have to inform the Providence Police Department. Once the siren was activated, instructions would be given from a loudspeaker system. People in the area would then be called by an automatic reverse-911 system.
The siren would be used in only three situations: if an "active shooter" is near campus, if a chemical is released somewhere close by or if there is natural disaster, Morin said. He said hurricanes are not be included in the natural disaster category, since there is enough advance warning of those events through other channels.
Brown said Walter Hunter, vice president of administration and chief risk officer, plans to test the siren system sometime between mid-November and mid-December. "You will know when it's going to be tested, and you will know what it means," Brown said.
The specific locations of the sirens around campus will not be made public to avoid vandalism, Morin said. However, he said he thinks one siren will be near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, another near the Brown Bookstore and a third near the Sharpe Refectory.
Morin, Messier and Brown said they hope the sirens will be loud enough so people both on and close to campus can hear them. They may not be loud enough to hear in some buildings, Morin said, though in most cases the intent of the sirens will be to get people inside, anyway.
The siren system will be paid for entirely by the University, Morin said, adding that the system is "really not that expensive" other than the initial cost of installing the sirens.
Morin's remark addressed concerns raised by community members at the meeting about increases in property taxes to pay for the system.
Another community member expressed concern about whether children at nearby schools would be scared during the siren's test runs. After initial hesitation, Brown said the University would be willing to work with nearby schools to teach the students about the system.
The University plans to work with the Rhode Island School of Design to operate the siren system and is considering a partnership with Johnson & Wales University as well, Brown said.
"RISD wants to piggy-back off of our system," Brown said. The University's new dual-degree program with RISD has provided even more justification for a combined effort, he said.
Moses Brown School and the Wheeler School are happy with their proximity to the system, Brown said. "The idea (behind the sirens) is notification," Brown said, which is particularly important since the University is located in a "dense, urban place."
