ACTIVE SHOOTER

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Maria Powers, Jillian Wunderlick,

Sarah Schwendinger, & Erin McElroy

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Goal
To create a university policy that requires an active shooter procedure to
be presented and taught to all incoming students at orientation, starting in
Summer 2015 and will be in every classes syllabuses by the Fall 2015 semester.

Overview
Due to the unfortunate prevalence of gun violence and shootings, we, as
students at the University of Northern Iowa, believe that our campus needs a
university policy that requires an active shooter procedure to be presented and
taught to all incoming students at orientation, starting in Summer 2015 and will
be in every class syllabus by the Fall 2015 semester because we as students
need to be informed about what to do if shooting were to occur on campus.
An important part of our campaign is educating students, faculty and staff
during an Active Shooter Awareness Week. This week will feature a multitude of
different activities designed to help inform students of what to do in this type of
emergency situation, the importance of having a procedure in place,
encourage them to sign up for A.L.I.C.E. training, and give us their support by
signing the pledge online. We would like to make it our goal to enlist current
students, faculty, and staffs support so we can create an active shooter
emergency procedure policy and have it in place for the coming years. We
believe that having a plan of action will help to save lives if this type of incident
were to occur.

Research
It is important for those in our society to be aware that this type of
emergency could happen to them. Today, many people are not aware of the
number of school shootings which have taken place. Many people dont
realize that since Sandy Hook, there have been nearly 100 more school
shootings (Feinblatt, 2014). The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school in
Newtown, Connecticut occurred on December 14, 2012. It is important for
faculty and students to know what to do to protect themselves if this type of
emergency were to occur.
Many schools throughout the United States have begun to raise
awareness about what to do in this type of emergency. In 2014, the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln designated a week to bring about awareness of what to do in
the case of active shooter emergency. During this week, the on-campus police
department taught students what to do in the case of an active shooter. The
aim of this week was to teach students how to get away from an active shooter
(Fell, 2014).
The University of Northern Iowa currently offers A.L.I.C.E. training for
students and staff. A.L.I.C.E. stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and
Evacuate. This type of training shows participants what to do if they are ever in
a situation involving a shooter. This training seeks to show its participants how to
flee a situation involving a shooter (Violent Incident Defense Strategies).
A.L.I.C.E training is beginning to be implemented at schools and universities
across the country. Although this type of training is offered to students, it is not
mandatory. Many college students may not have been educated in their
middle or high schools about what to do in the event of an active shooter. The
University of Iowa offers A.L.I.C.E. training to students and faculty who are
interested in protecting themselves during an active shooter situation (University
of Iowa Department of Public Safety). In addition, A.L.I.C.E. training is available
to students and faculty at Iowa State University (Violent Incident Response
Training).
The number of school shootings in our country is alarming. A campaign
needs to be implemented which helps inform students of their surroundings and
what to do in this type of situation.

S.W.O.T. Analysis
Strengths
Since new students to the University of Northern Iowa are required to
complete a number of safety training courses, we believe that this is a great
opportunity to educate them on the importance of being prepared for an
active shooter emergency. Since professors go through the course syllabus
during the first week of classes, current students are also able to be given a short
overview on what to do during an active shooter emergency.

Weaknesses
Students feel safe on the University of Northern Iowa campus and
therefore do not think about preparing for this type of emergency. Therefore, if
an active shooter situation were to occur on campus, many students would not
be prepared to handle the situation.

Opportunities
Since many college students are not trained on what to do in the event of
an active shooter, by holding an Active Shooter Awareness Week, we can
educate students on what to do in the event of an active shooter. This will
ensure the safety of the University of Northern Iowas students while campus.

Threats
A.L.I.C.E. training is not mandatory for students; therefore, many students
would not know what to do if an active shooter were present on campus. Since
active shooters could show up at a school or on a college campus at any time,
we cannot be sure that everyone would use their training in an emergency
situation.

Target Audience
The target audience for our Active Shooter Awareness Campaign is the students,
faculty, and staff of the University of Northern Iowa. We believe that by informing
this group is imperative in case an active shooter is on campus. By asking for
their support it will help us to not only create a policy for future students but also
helping our campus as a whole to be better prepared if this type of emergency
were to occur.
Advertising these trainings and an awareness that will start at the
beginning of a student's college career will benefit students, because shootings
in schools only increase as students continue to higher education. Students,
faculty, and staff will also be trained, because all three of these groups spend a
significant amount of time on school campus and should all be prepared and
trained equally, in case a shooter is on campus.

Goals and Objectives

Objective
Our objective for the Gun Awareness campaign is to train and educate
students, faculty, and staff at the University of Northern Iowa, in the unfortunate
event of a school shooting on campus.

Goals

Goal 1: To bring awareness to the University of Northern Iowa on Gun Safety

through a mandatory training and education seminar.
Tactic 1: Bring in guest speakers who are able to educate attendees in an
informative way. This would be tailored to the age of the audience.
Tactic 2: Have an interactive activity for the audience to partake in which
would provide a realistic situation.
Goal 2: To Increase viewership of our Gun Awareness website by 25 percent
within the next year.
Tactic 1: To encourage seminar attendees to take a pledge on our
website to spread awareness on our mission.
Tactic 2: To motivate those who are passionate about the prevention of
future school shootings by encouraging others to take the pledge.
Goal 3: To implement a test day once a year for UNI to practice a realistic
active gunman scenario on campus.
Tactic 1: For all faculty and staff to agree upon one day in September to
have a test day
Tactic 2: For all teachers to include in their syllabuses and mention the
emergency plan for students
Goal 4: To develop a scholarship program for students going to or currently
attending college.
Tactic 1: Encourage the emergency service industry throughout the
Cedar Valley to donate to the scholarship program.
Tactic 2: Advertise the requirements to be eligible for the scholarships to
students at UNI.

Schedule:
Schedule of Events
Active Shooter Awareness Week
Date:

8/24/2015

Day

Monday

Event

Table Tents

Where

What

In Rialto,

Advertising Table Tents complete with

Piazza and

QR Code that connects to the website.

Union
Informing them of coming weeks
8/24/2015

Monday

Teacher

Faculty and

Request

Staff Email

events. Asking them to encourage

students to go to the ALICE Trainings
and Informing them of the coming
drills.

09:00 AM to
8/24/2015

Monday

Tabling

2:00 PM

Hand out education flyers

Union

8/24/2015

Monday

8:00-9:00PM

Union

ALICE Training

Ballroom

Tuesday

Announced
Active

8/26/2015

8/27/2015

with further information.

Towers West

ALICE Training

Lounge

Wednesda

8:00-9:00PM

Union

ALICE Training

Ballroom

Thursday

7:00-8:00PM

spotted somewhere on campus please

proceed accordingly. Continued alerts

7:00-8:00PM

Tuesday

school or building invasions.

test, An active shooter has been

10:45 AM

Shooter Drill

8/25/2015

and more strategic evacuations during

UNI Alert will be sent. Announcing this

Planned and
8/25/2015

Training shows you techniques for safer

Training shows you techniques for safer

and more strategic evacuations during
school or building invasions.
Training shows you techniques for safer
and more strategic evacuations during
school or building invasions.

Towers West Training shows you techniques for safer

ALICE Training
Lounge
and more strategic evacuations during

school or building invasions.

An decoy active shooter will come
Unannounced
8/28/2015

Friday

Active
Shooter Drill

onto campus, and if will be up to

TBD

students to respond accordingly raising

the alarm, and kick-starting the drill
from there.

Sample Promotional Materials:

Table Tents:

Background Campus Screens:

Union Handout (Front & Back)

Social Media Plan

The School Shooting Awareness Campaign will utilize the newly
constructed website to kick off our social media presence. Students and faculty
will be able to access the website to support our mission. Our website also has
an area to donate to our scholarship fund that will be granted to the student
who successfully assists with the implementation and growth of our campaign.
We will team up with the University of Northern Iowa to promote our
campaign through their various social media sites. We will create events to be
posted on UNIs Facebook pages, to promote and spread the word to all
students. We will also create a hashtag to be used on UNIs Twitter page that
can be used by other students and faculty to spread our mission. The two
hashtags include #ASA and #ShooterAwareness. We will also team up with UNIs
Computer Consulting Center to design a screensaver promoting our
mission/upcoming events that will be displayed on all computers throughout
campus. In addition, we will also promote the training and awareness programs
in the weekly newsletter email InsideUNI.

Evaluation
1. To create a short evaluation following the training to get a better
understanding of what the audience absorbed and what needs to be
enhanced.
2. To have an evaluation for UNI students and faculty to fill out following the
test day to determine if they felt confident about what actions to take
in case of an active shooter on campus.
3. To have a 20 percent increase in students taking the pledge.
4. To track the website activity month to month to determine the
effectiveness of our media strategies on students, faculty, and staff.

Surveys
Survey Monkey
We created a survey monkey that can go out as a University email.
Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/67SJTHC

Example Questions
Please mark one of the following:
1. I think that UNI should enforce a School Shooter Awareness Drill and
training course.
Strongly Agree - Agree - Neutral - Disagree - Strongly Disagree

2. I think all schools in the U.S. could benefit from implementing this drill.
Strongly Agree - Agree - Neutral - Disagree - Strongly Disagree

3. I think it is a good idea to require incoming students to take a School

Shooting Awareness Training Course.
Strongly Agree - Agree - Neutral - Disagree - Strongly Disagree
4. How many times a year do you think schools should have this drill?

5. Do you have any tips for improvement?

Works Cited
Feinblatt, J. (2014, December 13). The number of school shootings since Sandy
Hook is higher than you think. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-number-school-shootings-sandy-hookhigher-you-think
Fell, C. (2014, April 15). UNLPD aims to educate students during Active Shooters
Awareness Week. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/unlpd-aims-to-educate-students-duringactive-shooters-awareness-week/article_45b26ad2-c44e-11e3-85130017a43b2370.html
Violent Incident Defense Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
https://www.vpaf.uni.edu/pubsaf/documents/VIDSpamphlet.pdf
Violent Incident Response Training (VIRT). (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2015,
from http://www.police.iastate.edu/violent-incident-response-training

University of Iowa Department of Public Safety. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10,

2015, from http://police.uiowa.edu/services/educational-programs/violentincident-survival-training/