Our New "Shelter In Place" Procedures

Unfortunately, we are now living in a world where potentially dangerous threats or situations occur that require plans to be made for the safety of our members, guests, and staff. 

If a threat or the potential of a threat has been determined by the university, the Osher office will be notified by a CMU alert email and by a CMU robo-call.  If the notice requires a Shelter in Place demand, Osher and its members are to follow the following protocol:

• The office staff will immediately evacuate everyone from the Hawkins Conference room, the bathrooms, and the outer hallway. Both the front doors will be locked, and the main hallway closet door will be closed.  Everyone will be instructed to move first to classrooms A or B, if there is space, and if not to the area by the donor wall and the lounge.  It is important that everyone stays away from direct line of sight of the front doors.
• A sign will be placed by the office staff on the outside of the main doors. This sign will say that because of a lock-down in progress, these doors are locked, and no one will be admitted to the Osher space until the lock-down has been lifted by the university.  It is important to seek shelter elsewhere.
• Once everyone is safely secure, the office staff will send both an email and a robo-call/text to the students coming in for the rest of the classes that day. When an all-clear notice is made by the university the office staff will notify those students who were sent the original notification that it is deemed safe to come to campus.
• Until the university has notified the Osher office by phone or email that the event is over, everyone must stay in place, without exception. If one needs to use the restroom, they can use a provided trash can.  If someone decides to leave the space, they will not be admitted back into the Osher learning center and will have to seek shelter elsewhere.  To leave they must exit through the Osher closet area.

The above procedure should be followed if such threat should occur.  Keep in mind that every situation is unique and that commonsense should be followed if these procedures seem inadequate.

Following are Run – Hide – Fight ideas to consider if you should find yourself in an Active Shooter situation.

RUN – HIDE - FIGHT

An Active Shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area; in most cases, active shooters use firearms(s) and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims.

Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Typically, the immediate deployment of law enforcement is required to stop the shooting and mitigate harm to victims.

Because active shooter situations are sudden and happen before law enforcement arrives on the scene, individuals must be prepared both mentally and physically to deal with an active shooter situation.

If you hear shots fired on campus or if you witness an armed person shooting or threatening people (active shooter):

• Immediately choose the best way to protect your life. Very quickly, make your best determination of what is occurring and which of the options below will provide the greatest degree of security for you employing the “RUN, HIDE, or FIGHT” protocol.
• If a direct hostile incident should occur in the Osher space, it is important that everyone get out of the space as quickly as possible.  If an escape path is available, use it.  Try to leave the building.  Leave your belongings behind, take others with you but leave them behind if they can’t or won’t go with you - RUN. 
• If leaving the space is not possible, then everyone should go into either of the classrooms, direct everyone to silence their cell phones, close the lights, and lay a chair on the floor as far away from the door as possible and lay behind it - HIDE.  
• As a last resort, fight if you cannot evacuate or hide safely and only when your life is in imminent danger.  Attempt to incapacitate or disrupt the actions of the shooter.  Act with physical aggression and use items in your area such as chairs, a fire extinguisher, etc. to throw at or distract the shooter.