Follow-Up on the Shooting

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Greetings readers,

I thought it might be nice to give a little follow-up on the recent shootings. I haven't heard much about anything else since it happened, so I guess it's probably pretty important. First, let's take a look at how the news has responded:

First, here's ABC's take.
And NBC...

Ohhhh, NBC..... At least ABC bothered to interview people...

Anyway, that's all swell and everything, but there are a couple interesting points to look at. First of all, how come President Howard was not interviewed? In the face of an (almost) tragic event like this, why was our leader not interviewed for a response on video? Sure, he was quoted as saying this was "Unacceptable." (also: Really? Really? of course it's "unacceptable!" You couldn't say more?). Fascinatingly enough, Dr. Howard, who has always been quick to jump on PR stuff like this was not interviewed for the news. Instead, they interviewed Mr. Thommy Shomo. Hmmm...What does Shomo do again? Oh yeah, that's right. He's the Director of Communications and Marketing. That's certainly a fascinating pick, Hampden-Sydney....

Now don't get me wrong. Mr. Shomo was the one who got me the gig for filming that admissions video...oh wait...that admissions video I did about a month or two ago, and they still haven't posted? Oh well. I'm not bitter. I didn't exactly praise the school in it, after all....

Anyway, I may be going off topic. The President did send a message to students, though. This was...certainly fascinating:

"The Hampden-Sydney Emergency Notification System....has a text component which was activated on the morning of Sunday, December 4." That's funny. I very distinctly remember signing up for this ENS on my very first day back on Campus. Lemme just follow this link, and make sure I'm--Oh! look at that, it has me registered already! Well that's funny...I never got a text notification... hmmm...

Sarcasm aside, there is a serious issue here. Either Christopher Howard is lying to save face, or the system was incapable of performing it's purpose. Because I like to see the best in humanity (even when I've constantly been proven wrong here), I will assume it was the latter. Well I emailed Dr. Howard in reply, wishing him and his family the best in such a stressful time, and respectfully requested that he test the system before someone gets shot and killed. He replied  "Thank you for the note and kind words. We will be testing the ENS soon." (ctrl+c, ctrl+v from my email). So hopefully I'll be getting a text soon to show that the system is working. If not...hell shall be raised.

--Editor

UPDATE
The system is now up and running, and students are being encouraged to sign up for the system. So..yay!