Poll reveals political apathy among students

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
November 7, 2007

During the Philadelphia Police Department’s manhunt for the person who killed Officer Charles Cassidy after holding up a Broad Street Dunkin’ Donuts, the La Salle campus was put on lockdown, or “shelter in place,” for part of the afternoon.

The alleged gunman, John Lewis, was eventually apprehended on the morning of Nov. 6 in downtown Miami.

The lockdown was put into place by Director of Security and Safety Art Grover at 12:40 p.m., after he had been tracking the situation since the shooting occurred at 10:35 a.m.

“I was initially concerned for the officer and the surrounding community,” Grover said.

Grover was especially distraught when he learned the identity of the officer, who had close ties to La Salle.

Grover eventually got in touch with the president, provost and other high-ranking administrators, and made the decision to put the campus in “shelter in place mode,” which means that everyone was required to remain where they were, even if they wanted to leave.

“We had never used the emergency text messaging service before, and I thought this was a good opportunity for a trial run,” he said.

Eventually, the campus began to shut down with the cancellation of all classes until 5 p.m. Security officers were called in to the 3-11 p.m. shift early, and after a command headquarters meeting at 12:55 p.m., officers were deployed throughout campus. At the same time, e-mails were sent, texts were received and notifications were posted on the mylasalle portal.

“By 1:15, many people told me the campus looked like a ghost town,” Grover said.

With the lockdown in place, Grover worked with the administration to decide what to do about evening classes.

“We knew that the search wasn’t going on in the immediate area, so we lifted the lockdown at 3:15 p.m.,” Grover said. “But we didn’t want people traveling on campus for night class or for students to be wandering off campus.”

This mindset led to the decision to cancel all evening classes, but hold all student activities as scheduled. This way, students might be encouraged to stay on campus even though classes were cancelled, according to Grover.

Being a retired Philadelphia Police Department captain, Grover was emotionally invested in the search for the cop killer. La Salle’s campus is around two miles from the crime scene, so Grover had close ties to the officers in the 35th district.

“Chuck was a genial man, a family man and a great friend to La Salle, and we will miss him greatly,” Grover said.

Cassidy was often recruited by La Salle Security to patrol events like basketball and football games, when Philadelphia officers are hired to give Security an extra hand. Although Grover grieves the loss of his fellow officer, he was pleased with the way his coworkers handled the emergency.

“The cooperation was outstanding,” Grover said. “Students, faculty and staff were patient and sympathetic. Without that, we couldn’t have managed as well as we did.”

Security’s response to the shooting was the first in which La Salleenterd campus on shelter in place mode. This was also the first time Security utilized the emergency text messaging service, which provided Grover with the chance to assess it. Reflecting on feedback he has gotten, Grover feels that some work needs to be done to improve the service, since some students received late, duplicate or garbled texts, and some saw no texts at all.

“That disturbs me, and I’m working with the director of Information Technology to improve it,” Grover said.

On Wednesday, 1,300 texts were sent, which resulted in the system timing out. When that happened, a “try again” button flashed, which prompted Security to send the texts again, because they didn’t know it had worked the first time. Additionally, the mylasalle portal slowed down because the site isn’t designed to accommodate a large number of hits.

“There were certainly some issues, but the main thing for us is that we got the information out there successfully, and can know how to refine the process for next time,” Director of Information Technology Ed Nickerson said.

Dean of Students Dr. Joseph Cicala agreed that the emergency procedures were well-executed, and pointed out Security’s success in keeping traffic in the area to a minimum.

Cicala also offered sympathy to Cassidy’s family and co-workers.

“The University community continues to respond to this tragic situation,” he said.

According to Cicala, there are several fund-raisers in the works for the Cassidy family, one of which will be sponsored by the Business Affairs staff, and will be run in conjunction with the Ambassador’s annual Thanksgiving dinner at the 35th District.

“Our thoughts and prayers are and will remain with the Cassidy family and with Officer Cassidy’s fellow members of the 35th District,” Cicala said.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu Additional reporting by Frank Visco