Abstract:
Just after noon Wednesday, the boiler in the campus power plant near Esker Dining Hall exploded. Only one minor injury was reported, University Police Chief Matt Kiederlen said.
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The RP did a good job of getting something up right away about this, whihch is a lot better than the administration seemed to be able to do. I was in the UC and heard others buzzing about an explosion right after it happened. But even 30 minutes after the explosion, there was nothing on the UWW home page, and it took nearly an hour for a mass campus e-mail.
Granted, it was a boiler that exploded, and thankfully no one was hurt seriously. But, c'mon, administration. Today is the one year anniversary of the tragedy in West Virginia. A little rapid reassurance would have been appreciated.
Agreed. Good to know that the bumbling administration cannot show any leadership in what could have been a very worrisome event. When a shooting happens the same exact scenario will play out and lives will be lost.
Would either of you want to know false facts? Why would you want re-assurance about something that may not be true. When we did get a mass e-mail there were still some details in the e-mail that were untrue. There was someone injured, there were services on-campus that were affected. I don't know about you but I'm a little angry to the fact that the campus administration wrote false facts to calm us down. They should be getting the facts first.
False facts? No. Facts? Yes. The campus newspaper was able to make a web post, within minutes that it was a boiler that exploded. A quick phone call to the University police confirmed this. Factually confirmed within minutes by the police seems to be pretty legitimate. And, for the asking, the campus police also responded almost instantly to an e-mail to me that it was a boiler explosion.
If you are suggesting that the administration just didn't know what was going on to the degree the felt comfortable sending out even the most basic e-mail, that's a much more serious but separate issue. For that, I share your concern. But, having the e-mail to prove it, the university police told me a reassuring fact in this one sentence (direct and complete quote: "Boiler heating plant area no injuries." The response came one minute after I e-mailed them... well before the campus e-mail. Subsequent media reports said a person transported to a hospital for reasons precautionary, so I would cut the police slack on saying there were no injuries.
I think it is pretty much true that within minutes, authorities knew it was an accident and that we were not under some kind of attack. It would have been nice to share that right away, no?
Again, I applaud the RP for doing what our Journalism School is teaching: get the facts and then get them out accurately and as quickly as possible. And I thank the University Police for rapidly responding -- factually -- to an e-mail request.
Wow you guys, really?!? WEST VIRGINIA!!! It's not that hard to check your facts before you make stupid comments like that. WEST VIRGINIA!?! It took people this long to realize that the tragedy happened at VIRGINIA TECH (I'll make it really big and obvious so you can figure it out.)
Now granted, we all would have appreciated a quicker response from the University itself. But we all didn't assume that it was an explosion. My first assumption was that it was something going on with the construction. And yes I realize that I was making an ass out of you and me by making this assumption. I am sure that, god forbid, something as serious as the VIRGINIA TECH shootings occured that the administration would handle things accordingly.
Yes, seriously over react a little bit more please. Understandable that it was the anniversary of VT, but you have to try and not keep track of those things. If you have to be cautious on all the school shooting anniversaries then you better watch out on Sunday/Monday since that is the date of Columbine. The students knew what it was before the faculty did. The faculty and student body would've responded a hell of a lot faster if it were a shooting.
I like how they mention nothing of the Sulfuric Acid hazmat gas, and that they transported victims to Ft. with two ambulances, during that time another ambulance was attending to an old lady puking. Then a deaf kid got in a car accident, so Whitewater was completely out of ambulances.
Why can deaf people drive if it's illegal for me to drive with headphones on?
Spring Break
Dave Wilcox
posted 4/16/08 @ 3:16 PM CST
Granted, it was a boiler that exploded, and thankfully no one was hurt seriously. But, c'mon, administration. Today is the one year anniversary of the tragedy in West Virginia. A little rapid reassurance would have been appreciated.