At least we know were safe from toy guns and bears that might not actually be bears.

So the University dropped the ball twice in one night no CatAlert and an apparent technical difficulty that prevented the students from knowing of their safety until after noon the next morning.

In an attempt to clean up the mess, the administration sent several emails to students promising improved communication. But this should never have been an issue.

When it comes to relatively harmless events, a CatAlert is sent out immediately, blowing up the phones and emails of students and faculty and assuring the students that they are safe.

Apparently a stabbing on campus is not something students should be informed of. And even though police believed they had accounted for all parties involved, students were left to find out details through their Facebook feeds and the rumor mill.

The problem with this is not that students couldnt believe police had things under control, but that students were meant to assume so.

Now technical difficulties do happen sometimes, thats understandable. But even so, the email to faculty and staff was sent out five hours after the stabbing happened.

Furthermore, the University should be more mindful of students and their feelings. While administrators and police may have known there was no danger, students were left to guess that.

There seems to be no cut-off for how mundane an event can be to warrant a CatAlert, so it doesnt seem reasonable that this was left out.

Even if all it said was Stabbing on Redstone. There is no threat to the community just like the toy gun alert, at least students would be reassured.

Instead, news sources were the ones to distribute the faculty email to the community.

While we wouldve done it anyway, the University should do its own job, in a timely fashion, for the sake of its students and those that are concerned for the campus in which they live.