All eyes are on Central after the events of Monday’s tense lockdown. While most of the details of the investigation were still unknown as of Monday night, a question that has been raised is how the university handled the security crisis.

There has been praise and criticism on how students were notified and how police responded. In a press conference that was held in Alumni Hall on Monday, President Jack Miller applauded the security protocols and plans that the university had implemented. He added that due to the fact that no one was injured and that the security crisis ended swiftly that the university’s emergency systems were a success.

“From a personal standpoint I can say that in this situation, our prayers were answered,” said President Miller.

However, there have been complaints that some students did not receive any phone calls, texts or email alerts, and that the information they did receive was delayed.While the school sent out an immediate warning through its on-campus Whelen loudspeaker system, the initial warning sounds were brief and had no follow up message. Only on the second broadcast was any information conveyed.

The main criticism with this method of delivery was the lack of recognition by students. Some students did not recognize the initial broadcast as a campus wide alert for lockdown, confusing the sounds with a fire alarm.

Additionally, messages sent by the university through text, email and voicemail were delayed, in some cases up to half an hour, or were not received at all. The reasons for these delays is unknown.

However, despite some of the criticism against the notification system, which is difficult to perfect, the response of both the CCSU administration as well as the combined police force of New Britain, Newington, West Hartford and the state police is to be commended.

According to CCSU interim police chief Chris Cervoni, the response time of the initial officers was less than a minute. And while some notifications may have been delayed, there is no evidence this is the case for all Central students.

In the end, the school and the authorities involved should be recognized and thanked for their swift response time to what could have been a potentially deadly outcome. It is better that the university and police took immediate action rather than underestimate the situation.

While people may say that the security situation was blown out of proportion, in light of Sandy Hook it is hard to believe that any gunman threat will ever be taken lightly. The university and all the authority involved responded quickly and efficiently; students were kept in place until the threat had passed. In all, it was a chaotic situation that luckily ended with no injuries. Should anything like this happen again, Central should continue their good work on communicating with students and police and students should feel confident in their university.