Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Today, August 13, our University Police Department will be directing an active attacker exercise on our campus, as a means of fine-tuning our response to a potential active attacker situation. In order to avoid undue concern, we want to share as many details as we can with you well in advance of the exercise. This is a follow-up to the notification emailed to employees and students on July 9 and again on August 8.
 
The exercise will take place on Tuesday between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. in the vicinity of Randall Library, which will be closed from 5 p.m. on Monday to 1 p.m.  on Tuesday. Kenan Auditorium, Bear Hall, and Deloach Hall will also be involved in the exercise; these buildings will be closed once housekeeping services conclude on Monday night, through 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Building occupants have been notified of the closures. 
 
Signage will be posted in the vicinity of the exercise, as well as at campus entrances and via CHWK Channel monitors throughout campus. Those of you who will be on campus on Tuesday will also receive a desktop alert on university computers.
 
You may hear simulated gunfire in the area of Randall Library between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. If you believe witnessing or hearing this exercise could create emotional or psychological distress for you, please avoid this area between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.
 
Approximately 20 local agencies (police and other emergency responders) will be participating in the exercise. These responders may engage their vehicles’ emergency lights while participating in the training exercise, but their sirens will not be activated. Exercise participants are expected to park in marked segments of the Randall Library lot, the Hamilton Drive lot (near the track), and the Kenan Auditorium lot. We apologize in advance for any parking inconvenience this may cause.
 
There will be no other impacts on campus activities; the exercise is being conducted before classes resume in an effort to minimize disruption for students and employees. You can learn more about what a full-scale exercise like this one involves here.
 

We will send reminders the evening before and the morning of the exercise, via campus email and UNCWAlert text messages. We will be informing the public via social media, our homepage, local partners, and media outreach. We recommend that you share information about the exercise with your families to avoid any confusion or concern today. We also respectfully request that you not take any photos of the exercise, or share them on social media, in an effort to avoid undue concern. Without the context of the training exercise, these photos could be distressing or misinterpreted.