STORY BY JASON GREEN, STAFF WRITER
PHOTO FROM CYPRESS CHRONICLE ARCHIVE
Cypress College students and staff who participated in the annual Great Shakeout today experienced some difficulties.
The Great Shakeout, a preparedness drill for earthquakes, started at 10:19 a.m., concluding around 10:41 a.m., but the text to students from the college arrived at 10:21 a.m. instead. The text stated, “This is a drill. Cypress College is participating in the CA ShakeOut. Drop, cover, and hold on. If you’re on campus, follow instructions from floor marshals,” as the event started.
The Great Shakeout at Cypress was conducted without setting the fire alarms off.An email from Cypress College Alert reached students’ emails at 10:31 a.m.and some students received delayed phone calls about the event.
Davi Sar, a second year computer science major, said, “Around 20 minutes after the event ended, I started getting the phone calls.”
Sar described the Great Shakeout at Cypress as “very disorganized” in which during the drill, people kept moving their positions around the designated parking lot confused.
Lenar Malig, a history major, saw officers from Campus Safety directing people to move closer towards Goodwill as the event was coming to an end.
Jocelyn Anaya, a communication studies major, said, “During class, everyone got a text, but they obviously didn’t have their phones with the volume up, therefore, they didn’t see the message until someone from campus said that there was a shakeout.”
Miscommunication was also a problem during last year’s Great Shakeout.
In an interview with Cypress College President JoAnna Schilling, she said that the biggest problem last year was that “not everybody got a text”. The problem wasn’t remedied this time around either.
Anaya saw students go in their own direction as she was walking to the Humanities’ buildings designated area for evacuation.
In an email from Craig Lee, the Director of Campus Safety, said “We are not evacuating persons with disabilities that are unable to make it on their own.”
Many students and staff felt the drill was unorganized, seemed to lack professionalism, and unsuccessfully performed for a second year.
