Boy, boy, crazy boy,
Get cool, boy!
Got a rocket in your pocket,
Keep coolly cool, boy!

Honestly people, calm down.

I picked up today's copy of The Lantern and was stunned by the front page. The Lantern, for those unfamiliar, is the predominant on-campus student newspaper at OSU. I usually find reading them from time-to-time rather informative, and they're all over campus every school day.

The front page today looked like this:

Sensationalist much?

Let's start with the Swine Flu. First of all, that picture. It's a picture of a baby being screened for Swine Flu in South Korea. Is this related to the single probable case of Swine Flu discovered at the OSU Med Center? Nope. Does it look sensational? You betcha.

The Ohio State University has been handling the Swine Flu extremely well, in my humble opinion. Before each and every press release has gone out, OSU sent out e-mails to every student at OSU, explaining in great detail the situation, what was being told to the press, and what the plans were to counter any threat of spreading disease. Students have received a number of updates on behalf of the Office of Student Life, OSU's Emergency website, Provost Joe Alutto, and VP of Student Life Javaune Adams-Gaston. They cover everything from FAQs to simple tips to prevent spread of disease to simple updates on whats being done.

www.emergency.osu.edu is a great resource for all OSU students, faculty, and staff. It's probably also good for parents out there to be reassured.

---------------------------------

The second headline deals with an "Explosion." As it happens, guess where I was yesterday morning at that time! You're right! MacQuigg. One moment I'm in Calc lecture, the next moment the scene looks a little more like this:

Students evac the building and all buildings connected

Firetruck! This is not a fire drill like we all thought

Now, these images may seem alarming, but let me point out a few things:

1. Students evacuated without incident. Now, we all thought it was a drill or malfunction at first, so we weren't too speedy initially. That changed however once we heard the sirens. Which brings me to point two...

2. The fire department was darned quick in sending a firetruck plus support vehicles and an ambulance. It took them only a couple minutes to navigate OSU traffic and get to MacQuigg.

3. "Explosion" really only meant small rupture of a tank in one room. There was a brief fire due to that rupture, but it was contained immediately, with the pulling of the fire alarm as a precaution. Firemen checked out the building, not a single person (not even the graduates working in that very room) was injured, and as far as I know MacQuigg went back to normal operations (minus that room) that day.

Things happen. Swine flu's come out of nowhere and valves on tanks rupture. But these things happen once in a blue moon. And on the off chance that they happen (or even happen in the same day), OSU and Columbus have got trained, professional personnel to deal with things.

They're organized, they have plans for every situation, and they keep the students informed.

Sounds like we're in pretty good hands. :-)

Take care,

Rob