Let’s Talk About The Shooting At OU

aray8 years ago

I love my school, but after the events that happened Wednesday night, I think there are some things that need to be addressed.

After spending almost two years on this campus, I can’t say I have ever felt unsafe or scared. That was until last night. As I sat in a movie theatre in Oklahoma City, I felt my phone start to vibrate continuously from friends in Norman saying there was an active shooter on campus. Specifically, at a fraternity house no more than 100 feet from my sorority house.

I started receiving more and more pictures and texts of shattered windows, crashed fences, and bullet holes in walls. And still, silence from the university. The night went on, the incident passed, and it was soon enough over. Still, no text, emails, anything from the university.

My junior year of high school, a neighboring high school had an shooter on campus. Within minutes of the shooting beginning, our entire school was on high level lockdown. All doors locked, windows shut, everyone under desks. The high school with the active shooter was 15 miles away from where we were. Last night there was a shooter less than a mile away from campus and we didn’t even receive so much as an emergency text.

I know Greek life is controversial on this campus. I am Greek myself. I am all for regulating parties and drinking and punishing houses that blatantly break rules. But no matter what rules Greek houses break, they are still University of Oklahoma students. Last night, the university left hundreds of students completely in the dark, solely replying on GroupMe to figure out what was going on.

When fraternities get in trouble for drinking or hazing, they are considered to be on campus. So why, when their lives are being threatened, they are considered to be near campus instead of on it, and that is the university’s excuse for doing literally nothing? They are either on or near. The university can’t pick their location based on the situation.
  
There have been claims saying that after the Mixon incident, women should feel unsafe on our campus. I didn’t feel unsafe then. The idea that our male faculty didn’t care about me never even crossed my mind. Last night, I felt genuinely unsafe and uncared for.

I, for the first time since stepping onto this campus almost four years ago on my first tour, felt as though the administration didn’t care about me, the Greek community, or Oklahoma students in general. We receive texts, phone calls, and emails telling us to seek shelter as soon as a threat of a tornado is near campus. So, my question to you is, why did that same thing not happen last night when an active shooter was near campus?.

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