UIU exercises caution to secure safety of students
Fayette, Iowa (April 26, 2007) – Upper Iowa University (UIU) this morning had an off-duty police officer from Independence, Iowa visit the Fayette residential campus as a scheduled guest. This police officer was in plain clothes and wearing his fire arm.
At the conclusion of the police officer’s visit to the UIU campus a student, who was not aware of the police officer’s identity, reported to campus security that they had seen a man with a gun on campus.
While no actual crime had taken place, we followed our safety protocol and reported this to the Fayette police department. UIU also followed our safety policy and began sweeping our campus and locking down our faculties as a precaution. Soon after our communications and safety protocol was enacted we verified the identity of the police officer, and have since sent out an “all clear” to our UIU community and have also sent this communication to our local media affiliates to clarify this incident and provide a point of contact should more information be required.
Fedelina Madrid, VP for Marketing and Communications has stated, “Our students’ safety is our number one priority and, as such, UIU takes every precaution to make sure we follow through with any report of potential danger.
In this case, we are happy to report, no students, faculty or community members were in danger and we have been restored to our full operational status.”
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Sheila Miller at the office of Public Relations at 563-425-5326.