Water crisis communication

To the Editors:

When a water main into the city of Oberlin broke last weekend, the communication from the College and the city was poor. Signs advising students, college faculty and staff and town residents (including college students living off campus) were posted in some college building windows and on some downtown businesses, which is an important measure, and students living in dorms received email advisories from their RAs, but no general notice was sent out to the College or city community. The city may not have an effective means of rapid communication with all residents, but the college can very easily send out an all-campus e-mail and post updated information on the college website. This would have warned many students not to drink the unhealthy water before wandering outside and happening upon one of the warning signs in doors, as well as providing advanced warning to faculty and staff who do not live in Oberlin.

I appreciate the college’s reluctance to send out all-campus email in general — I receive enough unwanted email already — but emergencies like this are one of the few occasions that merit an all campus note. E-mail provides an easy, cheap and fast way to warn us; it should be one notification method for similar emergencies in the future.

—Alex Hill
College junior