A lock-down will be used to protect building occupants in the case of an emergency. This requires the residents of a building to stay safely sheltered where they are located once an emergency is identified and declared by the President, or appropriate delegate, unless there is a specific threat within the building that requires them to exit.
During a lock-down police and other emergency personnel would be responding to the emergency. Mansfield University has 24-hour-a-day police protection through our own Police Department. Our police officers are fully trained in the use of firearms and carry weapons at all times.
Mansfield University is also connected to a network of police and other emergency support via a County Emergency Communications Center that allows police and other emergency personnel to coordinate their response across agencies. Their work will be much easier if they can know that members of the campus community are in a secure location with instructions to remain where they are.
What is a lock-down?
All campus buildings will be locked to prevent entrance from the outside. Exit from the buildings will still be possible by pushing the crash bars. Students and personnel should not exit the building unless the situation in the building requires escape.
Exterior entrances of buildings will be locked by the facilities personnel, staff, or faculty who has access to door lock hardware. Faculty or staff members with keys to offices may have the capability to lock entrances to buildings. MU Police may not be available to assist in the locking of the buildings if an emergency exists on campus.
Students in residence halls must remain in their rooms with the door locked.
Staff will remain in their offices, or secure area, preferably without windows, with the door locked.
Faculty will move students to any lockable room in the building or remain in the classroom with the door barricaded if possible.
The implementation of campus lock-down status will be communicated via the following means:
An emergency message will be transmitted via the campus carillon system, which is designed for alert the main campus outdoor walkways.
E-mail emergency alerts will be sent to students at Mounties.mansfield.edu and faculty/staff in their Mansfield e-mail accounts.
All University owned computers on the network (labs, classrooms, faculty-staff desktops) will receive a pop-up message announcing the emergency through the ALERTUS system.
ALERTUS Emergency Beacons, located in Manser Dining, Alumni Hall/Student Union, Steadman Theater, Straughn Auditorium, and the MU Child Care Center, will be activated with the emergency message.
An emergency cell phone text message and phone call will be sent to faculty, staff and students, who have registered for emergency messages, via Blackboard Connect. Go to My.Mansfield to sign up for alerts.
Students, faculty and staff should look for further information on the university's main web page. A Campus Alert message will appear as a banner on the top of the page.
Additionally, any campus television tuned to Channel 10, and the weather emergency phone will have emergency information.
All students, faculty and staff must remain in the building they are currently in until such time as the lock-down status is removed. Notification of an "All-Clear" will be transmitted through all previous available communications methods.
Access to campus by outside constituents may be denied during the emergency.
You should be able to monitor continuous updates via any of the above means of communication.