I took my midterm during the SU lockdown
‘Rumors were being spread about a body being found and five armed suspects being on campus’
On Wednesday night, around 8:30pm, DPS alerted students, faculty, and guests an emergency was occurring.
Sirens rang, text messages popped up, and phones started ringing alerting students that no one was allowed to leave whatever building they were in because the campus was on lockdown.
The message instructed students to stay safe, but did not say much about the crime that had prompted such a severe response.
Students in classes, gyms and libraries were all forced to remain there until they were told otherwise.
The siren alert from DPS caused confusion, seeing as the sirens are only used for extreme emergency.
DPS told The Tab the last time the sirens were used to alert students was back in November 2008.
Some students were lucky to be home when the lockdown occurred.
Others like me, were stuck.
I was taking a midterm in Maxwell. My professor called for our attention and told us that an event was occurring and we would not able to leave.
He said he did not have much information to give, but he would be checking the news and updating us.
When people started finishing their exam, the class became worried. We didn’t know what had happened and rumors were being spread about a body being found and five armed suspects being on campus.
The Syracuse women’s club basketball team was practicing in the gym when the campus went under lockdown.
As they were about to leave, they received an unexpected message.
Viveca Oritz-Torres told The Tab: “We ended practice early and we all went to check our phones and we see a message saying emergency don’t leave your building and we were all like oh god, so we’re stuck in the Women’s Building?
“[The staff] locked the doors, they were like ‘we strongly advise that you don’t leave’ they made it so people couldn’t get in or out. We didn’t even know how long we were going to be there for.”
Being in Women’s Building put Viv and her team in one of the closest buildings to where the police believed the suspect to be.
Viv told The Tab, “Women’s building is right by the cemetery so we were all too scared to leave.
“People who lived around me we’re like ‘I can hear helicopters from above my apartment building’ and I was just like I don’t want to come home to that.
“I definitely thought that we would be there until at least 1 in the morning.
“We waited for 2 hours, but we kept ourselves entertained because guys would come to us and find out we were the Women’s basketball team and want to play a game. So it wasn’t like we were just bored for 2 hours.
“[Also] to keep ourselves entertained, since we’re a self coached team we always bring music to play. So we we’re just like yo put up that Fetty Wap – 679.
“When they finally lifted the alert this one girl from the team drove six of us home.
“Even though it was late, the campus was really busy. It seemed like a lot of people were stuck in buildings that night.”
It was stressful, inconvenient, and kind of a pain in the ass that we were all forced to stay in one location for an unknown period of time.
But, it showed how the school really does view our safety as a priority. All students were safe during this night and we were all able to proceed with our lives.
In response to the stress caused for students, Syracuse offered 24 hour counseling for those who needed it.