Middlebury has planned its first-ever shelter-in-place drill for this Friday, Dec. 6 at 1:50 pm. Lasting 15 minutes, the exercise is meant to prepare community members for a variety of emergency situations on campus, including active shooter threats, hazardous waste spills, dangerous weather conditions and other crises.
Associate Vice President of Safety Demitria Kirby announced the drill in an email to the college community on Nov. 12, followed by another update on Nov. 21. Kirby shared that the college has been preparing for the drill for months, and she is hoping to provide full transparency with community members about why such an activity is necessary.
“We started to discuss the plans for the upcoming drill early last year. We’ve had conversations with senior leadership, Faculty Council, Staff Council and students about what the shelter-in-place drill would look like,” Kirby told The Campus in an interview this week.
The drill will begin on Friday afternoon with a message from MiddAlert to seek shelter in the nearest building away from windows. Approximately 20 staff members will be around campus in high-visibility vests to direct students into buildings and to observe community responses to inform future preparations.
“The goal is simply to practice sheltering in place and encourage productive discussions on emergency preparedness and response throughout our community,” Kirby wrote in her initial email last month.
The drill will take place in the wake of recent security incidents at Middlebury, including a hoax active shooter situation in Davis Family Library on April 9, 2023. Some students at the time, especially international students, reported being unfamiliar with emergency protocols, according to Pete Brown, Middlebury’s emergency management coordinator. After the incident, the college faced questions concerning the timing of the MiddAlert system, which took almost an hour and a half to notify students of the potential threat. The system was also used during a stabbing on College Street last March.
“We want the community to learn how to respond to these situations in a drill, rather than if an incident actually took place and we had to learn about this after something has occurred,” Brown said. “Students that I have spoken with have been overall positive in their reactions to the planned drill.”
Kirby echoed that sentiment, adding that the date and time of this exercise were intended to ensure that at least some classes would be in session without creating excessive disruption.
“We listened to our community in the wake of the active shooter hoax two springs ago and we listened to our students when they said this drill was something that would help them,” Kirby said. “We looked at other NESCACs, we looked at other schools in Vermont, and it’s pretty common to see them do emergency preparedness drills.”
As part of their community outreach before the planned exercise, the college has posted notices on social media in addition to Kirby’s earlier emails, and Public Safety has been tabling around campus to discuss the issue with students in person.
“Our goal for these drills is about once a semester. We can also start to integrate the RAVE emergency notification system into future drills, rather than making them separate tests of Middlebury’s emergency preparedness,” Brown said.
The topic of the emergency drill was raised at the November Faculty Council meeting, where some faculty questioned the timing of the drill as well as its implications for the community.
“Could it possibly be moved to 2:05 p.m.? I teach from 1:10 to 2 p.m. on Fridays,” one faculty member asked. Another questioned the timing on the second-to-last day of classes and only a few days before finals take place.
“I don't teach at that time, so this doesn't affect me, but it strikes me that, essentially, almost the last day of classes is not the right time to do the first one of these,” the faculty member added.
Members of the Faculty Council encouraged the gathered professors to accept the drills and stressed that the timeline was not changeable, despite several questions regarding the issues.
“I just wonder if we’ve given thought to whether or not the trade-offs are worthwhile and whether this actually does anything other than sort of get everybody stressed out,” a third professor said.
When asked about these concerns, members of the administration and Public Safety emphasized the importance of emergency preparedness and the urgent need to implement this kind of training on campus.
Kirby encouraged students to participate in the drill this week and to familiarize themselves with MiddAlert.net where updates will be publicized during emergency situations. After this Friday, she expects Public Safety will review feedback from staff running the drill and community participants with an eye toward another test in the spring.
“We’ll begin discussing what the spring semester drill will look like with faculty in January,” she said.
Ryan McElroy '25 (he/him) is the Editor in Chief.
Ryan has previously served as a Managing Editor, News Editor and Staff Writer. He is majoring in history with a minor in art history. Outside of The Campus, he is co-captain of Middlebury Mock Trial and previously worked as Head Advising Fellow for Matriculate and a research assistant in the History department. Last summer Ryan interned as a global risk analyst at a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina.
