Eagle Alerts: Do They Work?

What are Eagle Alerts?

Most colleges have systems that they use to inform their student body about crimes or potentially dangerous situations that happen on or around the campus; Georgia Southern is no different. Eagle alerts are mass text messages, automated phone calls, and emails that Georgia Southern students receive when a crime happens on campus or in the surrounding area.

What’s the (perceived) Issue?

In recent years, Georgia Southern students have been dissatisfied with Eagle Alerts. Among student sentiments, there are arguments that Eagle Alerts are too vague, that Eagle Alerts are sent out too late, and that Georgia Southern isn’t always alerting us when they should be (in cases of reported rape or sexual assault, for example).

In most recent news, three Georgia Southern women were kidnapped from a local grocery store, and there was an outcry from students that the Eagle Alerts regarding the incident didn’t tell the full story.

“[Eagle Alerts] are too vague but oddly specific when the suspect is black.”, said one Twitter user after I took to social media to ask what Georgia Southern students thought about the alerts. The perpetrator in the kidnapping of these three women was a white man, which is why this particular comment is particularly relevant for this situation.

Examples:

Following the kidnapping last weekend, Georgia Southern failed to let its students know that this was not just a kidnapping. The three women were taken at knife point and two of them were sexually assaulted.

In August, Georgia Southern failed to inform the student body about a reported rape that allegedly occurred in the University Villas, an on-campus housing facility. Georgia Southern in no way let the students know about what happened. There was no eagle alert, email, automated phone call, or statement made by the university letting their students know that not only had an assault been reported, but that the suspect was still at large. There was an attacker on the loose, and Georgia Southern didn’t feel that communicating this to their students was important enough to issue an Eagle Alert.

As a Georgia Southern student, I have to agree. I, along with many of my fellow Eagles, believe that Georgia Southern has a duty and a responsibility to keep its student body informed. We pay tuition and fees to this institution and it is important for us to hear about what’s going on around us from the mouthpiece of our university, rather than getting second-hand knowledge from the news and social media. Investigations need to happen, that’s understandable, however, our college has a responsibility to give us the story — the full story.