Keeping My Reports Gruntled

[akirlu]

The helicopters are circling again. Here in Seattle, where you seldom hear helicopters at all, their massed, fluttering rumble feels oppressive. If you look at KOMO or KING 5, you'll see endless live footage of the buildings of UW from the air. It's not that informative.

The good news -- for me anyway -- is that I was not shot this morning.

This seems more relevant to mention than most mornings because two people were in fact shot on the UW campus less than three hours ago, over in Gould Hall. The breaking news now seems to indicate a murder/suicide, and that possibly this was the culmination of a stalker episode, which is all horrible enough, but when we first heard about it here, the rumors were flying that the shooter(s) were still at large.

Possibly the weirdest aspect of a weird and unsettling incident was the amazing speed and reach of rumors in an age of text-messaging. I think that's something the University (and other authorities) are going to have to be more aware of in handling breaking news. The Campus Police did not send out any kind of blanket e-mail to let the campus know that the situation was under control and no lock down was necessary (though that is what they told us verbally when we called them), but since the rumors were flying well ahead of their response, I think a lot of micro-panics could have been forestalled if they simply had a policy of notifying the campus when something like this happens. We're going to find out anyway, the question is what's going to be our source and how reliable.

And so it's been a morning of tiny, incremental improvements in the information we have. Typical, when dealing with breaking news. Annoying, when you're this close to the epicenter of it. If it was a stalker that probably blows my expectation of yet another disgruntled employee on a spree. Still, I will continue to keep my employees gruntled.

Or not.

(Hey, who knew "edit" was a backformation of "editor"? I sure didn't.)

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Incredibly, there still hasn't been any campus-wide notice from the President's office or the Campus Police. There is an announcement on the homepage, and maybe that's all they're going to do.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

That seems pitifully inadequate. And rather late.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Whew. Glad you're okay. I hadn't heard anything about it until I read your post.....heh.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It doesn't look like I was ever in any danger. It's shaking out that the shooter was the victim's ex boyfriend, she had sought a restraining order against him and moved more than once to stop being findable, and had even passed around his picture and a description at work in case he should be looking for her there. All to no avail.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh man. That's so fucking sad. I'm happy that you were not in danger, of course.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

In the DC area, a woman getting a restraining order is almost always a prelude to being killed. There's something about being told that he can't see the woman that makes the man decide he has to kill her so she'll always be his.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

An alternate theory is that the women who know these situations best are those in the middle of them. When one of them decides, "Oh shit! This guy is really dangerous!" She is likely to be right. I'm not sure how to distinguish between those theories. It's hard to get accurate statistics on the popularion of women who decide, "Oh shit! This guy is really dangerous!" and just disappear because they're afraid of getting restraining orders.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Julie briefed me on our walk home from the bus stop. We're both glad you're okay.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Interesting UW administrator's view of the aftermath.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Possibly the most interesting thing there is that there's another fan working in Randy's building whom I know nothing of.

For the rest, it's old news to those who work here: the University administration was shockingly slow and inadequate in responding to the events, leaving individual units to figure out what was going on, and come up with a response, entirely on an ad hoc basis with no coordination at all. It's not really surprising that this was true in the Registrar's office, since it was true everywhere else.

[wrdnrd]

Make that 3 fans, not just in Randy's building, but in Randy's office. [waves] Hi, i'm Chris. (And i think i've seen you around the journals of brisingamen and marykaykare.) I used to work on 2nd floor Schmitz with Matt/bluewoad and Randy (tho', despite our desks being about 50 feet apart for 2 years, i doubt Randy could pick me out of a line-up as our jobs never intersected and the Registration Office is large enough that it took me a year-and-a-half to learn everyone's names properly). Where are you on campus? I don't think i ever picked up that you're another UW person.

I've been working in News and Information for about a year now. And ours was probably the only office on campus that knew what was going on on monday, and in excruciating, minute-by-minute detail (i've personally reached the point where i'm in information overload, such that when i get home at night i immediately curl up with a book and ignore spouse and cats, phone and email). You make an excellent point about the lack of communication across campus on monday morning. I'll mention this to the boss, since we're in a position where comments like this could actually do some good if they filter thru' the right people in the right way. And Bob's pretty good about seeing that things move in just the right way if he can.