Dear ONU Students, Families of our Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As we gather once more to direct our energies and talents toward the creation of another vibrant academic year filled with personal and collective accomplishments, I ask you to think about the special community that we all belong to and the one that we collectively sustain.

Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech last spring, there was a good deal of discussion and reflection among the leadership at institutions of higher education about the possibility of the “unthinkable” happening on their own campuses. Administrators at many colleges and universities, including Ohio Northern, met to discuss ways to keep their campuses and their people safe and secure.

Well before the incident at Virginia Tech, Northern had completed work on an emergency preparedness plan that not only made provisions for a possible avian flu pandemic, but also comprehensively reviewed and revised the existing plan for all categories of campus emergencies. We have in place many established and tested campus emergency response procedures that cover all types of situations from severe weather, to utility outages, to terrorism. We also have excellent rapport with our local police who are quick to support us as needed.

The University has an on-site tornado-warning siren that can be heard over the entire campus. The Residence Life staff also holds periodic fire drills in the residence halls and each building has a safety director trained to manage emergencies. We have also recently changed over to a new company, Twenty First Century Communications, to provide an emergency text messaging service for our students, faculty and staff. They will be able to sign up for this service through the Luminus portal on our website.

All emergency procedures are listed on the University’s home page www.onu.edu Emergency messages will also be displayed as “pop ups” on the University’s home page, broadcast on our television/cable station, and announced on the radio station WONB-FM (94.9). If there is a power outage, we have emergency generators to back up those providers.

Administrative staff has emergency plans in place and all of those involved are trained to carry out those plans. But while we have done our work to be prepared, we also rely on each member of our community to support the efforts that we have made. The success of the whole is dependent on the commitment and diligence of each person.

What can you do? We ask that you be mindful of the existing emergency information and instruct those who don’t know. Be forthcoming with information that you think might jeopardize the health and well being of others. Take care of yourselves and those around you. Make good choices and help others to make good choices as well. Don’t just be responsible, but take responsibility; be aware of your surroundings and considerate of safe practices to help us keep our campus community secure. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Ms. Lee Ann Hall at (419) 772-2501 or email her at
l-hall@onu.edu

I wish you each a safe, happy and productive year.

Kendall L. Baker