Blog Assignment: SMU Crisis

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/042707dnmetSMU.df6db07.html

After the Virginia Tech killings, Southern Methodist University received a threatening note written on the back of a chair in one of the campus’ classrooms. The note said, “I am going to shoot up SMU on 8-6-07,” and was reported by an anthropology professor. SMU police have no suspects at this point but are investigating the situation.

I have looked on the official SMU site, SMUDaily.com (a news Web site) and the SMU police Web site for information about the incident, but have not found anything. The article, originally written by the staff at The Dallas Morning News, is a simple news release with little bias. They interviewed SMU police chief Richard Shafer, but he is the only one. Even though the “crisis” is not priority and is still in the early stages of investigation, with the recent Virginia Tech massacre, some kind of blurb/announcement should be posted on the site to let any concerns from the public (students, parents, other family members, etc.) be put at ease. In SMU’s defense, they may have sent some kind of mass email to students about threat. But in my opinion, SMU’s response to the situation and the news media coverage was not adequate.