University of North Florida president trying to make campus safer for staff, students

Officials at the University of North Florida say they’re trying to identify new ways to keep students safe on campus.

The announcement comes after a gunman was reported on the college campus on February 11.

That report turned out to be false, but some students, staff and parents were upset about how long it took the campus to send an alert.

The crisis management team at UNF said the incident happened inside a parking garage.

Since then, it has prompted school officials to analyze what went wrong when alerting students, and how to fix it in the future.

The president of the University of Florida is calling for a full review after some students said they didn’t get the alert they’d hoped for on February 11.

Students told Action News Jax they typically feel safe on UNF’s campus, but after the delays with information about reports of a gunman on campus, Cody Bray said he’s now doubting security.

“I can count on more than 10 fingers and toes of how many people did not get that alert. If there’s reports of a potential gunman on campus and we’re not hearing about it in less than five minutes, then honestly, I start to question our security measures here,” Bray said.

And other students, like Ryan Murphy, agree.

“I thought there should’ve been more alerts. Biggest thing that upset me was just the lack of information,” Murphy said.

That’s why the president of UNF has mandated a complete review of the university’s response.

This will allow officials to figure out what worked and identify where there needs to be improvement.

They plan to review personnel, technology, procedures, and training.

No one was injured in this event, but students said they want to see a change in security, so everyone is better prepared if an event like this ever happens again.

“Yeah, I most definitely want to know what fully happened and how the lack of information did not go out,” Bray said.

The university is having an outside consultant conduct this review and says it will take several weeks. UNF officials made it clear that the safety of their staff and students is their top priority.