In response to all the talk about the alert system at Northeastern, these are my thoughts.

An earlier NU Alert would not have stopped anyone from being crushed underneath the falling cornice. Thank God no one was hurt, but Northeastern reporting a day later instead of that day would not have saved any lives. No need to warn people to keep a distance from the area when police tape and traffic directions would have been enough to keep people from walking around the area after the incident. For traffic reports of the street being closed, you could have looked to the local news or the T announcements.

If you’re concerned about your son or daughter, you could more than likely reach them on a cell phone. Even if our alert system is what some people may think of as faulty, at least we have an alert system. Five years ago even, parents would not have been complaining about the failure of an alert system because there would not have even been one.

I’ve become annoyed with people finding anything and everything to complain about. At least we have some sort of emergency system in place at our school. If you didn’t get the email before being interviewed for The News, maybe it was waiting for you when you got home. Don’t be upset about it, just understand that technology may have flaws, but we’re still better off than we ever were. Our parents didn’t have text, email and phone call alerts when bad things were happening.

I wish the editing of The News’ video showed a little bit of both sides. Instead it simply made Northeastern look like the bad guy for not sending out an emergency alert. We live in an old city and stuff happens sometimes that isn’t expected. I’ll take old buildings over earthquakes and landslides; you could look at life as getting out of bed every day is a risk.

Anyway, stop complaining because Northeastern acted in a respectable way:’ Giving immediate alternatives to residents directly affected, focusing on the main problem, and also by making the student body aware of the situation despite the fact that many are on summer break. The events are unfortunate, but uncommon. Buy yourself a cell phone and emergency system or not, news will spread fast.

‘- Caitlin Ahern is a junior business major.
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