Too Much Training?

The following letter appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education concerning UCLA's recent active shooter incident. The author complains of the difficulty of getting folks on campus to be trained in how to respond in such events. But perhaps the problem is that there has developed a training overload - mainly mandated without anyone checking to see if it has desired behavioral consequences.

To the Editor:

I wanted to take a moment to comment on your article, “Scared and Unprepared, UCLA Students Improvised a Lockdown Response” (The Chronicle, June 3.)  As a campus emergency manager in the University of California system, I can tell you that each of the 10 campuses that are a part of the UC system offer some sort of emergency preparedness and/or active shooter training. The largest hurdle we all face is getting students, staff, and faculty to show up for the training. It’s out there and available, but often people don’t take the issue seriously and won’t take the initiative to attend...

Anne Widney
Emergency Services Manager
University of California at Irvine

Full text at http://chronicle.com/blogs/letters/uc-campuses-do-in-fact-provide-emergency-preparedness-training/