Information Technology Services at Iowa State is continuing to investigate why the ISU Alert system did not work properly following the Nov. 3 police chase onto Central Campus.

The alert said shots were fired on Central Campus as a result of a police chase and the suspect was in custody. The message also advised students and staff to “avoid the affected area,” even though the situation had been resolved by the time many students received the alert.

Students, parents and staff who were signed up to receive the alert via text received them at different times, many receiving a message at 10:53 a.m., and others around 11:15 a.m. Many who were supposed to receive a text did not receive one at all.

Additionally, the alert email sent out to those signed up to receive it went directly into their spam folder.

President Steven Leath sent a mass email to inform students and members of the ISU community that Warren Madden, senior vice president of business and finance,  will “conduct a comprehensive review of Monday’s incident in order to assess [the] response and act upon those lessons learned.”

“We certainly want to correct technology so people who want to be in the system are on it and that it works, and messages are getting delivered to the people and that they should be delivered to in the timeline the systems permit,” Madden said.

IT Services had said it was unsure as to why the Alerts did not work correctly. The department also said that, from its perspective, it could not tell that emails sent out were received in spam folders.

The alert is sent through Blackboard Connect, which reported that all alerts had been received successfully. Iowa State uses Gmail as its email system to send out all email alerts. An investigation is still underway as to what went wrong.

“The technology people through Jim Davis are working on the technology side to see if we can find out why people who have said they were in the system didn’t get the messages,” Madden said.

Madden said he is working with the Department of Public Safety to improve training programs so there is a better understanding as to how they should respond to different situations.

Madden also said they are deciding on whether or not it is necessary to provide a second message after the initial alert to give students, parents and faculty more information as to what occurred.

The second source of information could be anything from an email or a website where more details on emergency situations would be posted, Madden said. 

Some students like Lauren Kuntz, sophomore in event management, feel as though students and faculty should be notified about the investigation, and that students should be reassured that the problem will be fixed.

“I think they should explain why the alert didn’t work and why it wasn’t more informative,” Kuntz said.

Kuntz also said she would appreciate follow-up information provided by University Relations after an ISU Alert situation.

“Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of rumors about what happened,” Kuntz said.

However, many students like Kuntz have not used the ISU Alert system as her primary source of information for emergencies on campus, especially on Nov. 3.

“I think that, with social media, people are going to be alerted in other ways than just the ISU Alert system. I don’t think that students are waiting around for the ISU Alert system, they’re taking action to find out in other ways,” Kuntz said.