Cody Ayers was working in Wescoe Hall at Kansas University when he suddenly was confronted Friday morning by three heavily armed police officers.

“They startled me,” the Garden City senior said. “I was packing someone’s office up, and I saw three guys with assault rifles. They asked me if I had seen someone.”

The officers, and dozens others from throughout Douglas County, were following up on what turned out to be an unfounded report of a man on campus carrying a rifle.

Despite university plans to improve emergency communication throughout the campus community in response to the recent Virginia Tech shootings, no official word was released until nearly an hour after the search began.

“No question this was a training exercise,” said Don Steeples, vice provost of scholarly support. “We’ve got room for improvement.”

Search for an armed man

Authorities received just one report of a man carrying a gun.

“It was a scary situation,” Ayers said. “You don’t know what is going on.”

KU and Lawrence police along with Douglas County Sheriff’s officers swarmed the main campus after receiving a report of a gunman at 9:15 a.m. A KU maintenance worker called 911 after seeing a man he thought was carrying a rifle, said Todd Cohen, university spokesman. The caller had been looking out a window in the facilities operations building. He told officials that the man with the rifle was walking west.

Police stationed officers throughout the area while conducting a search of the grounds and the closest westward buildings, including Wescoe, Malott and Budig halls and Watkins Memorial Health Center. Although police guarded some street entrances, including Jayhawk Boulevard, the campus never was shut down.

Lawrence Police Chief Ron Olin said early during the search that the presence of a gunman hadn’t been confirmed and that the searches were a precaution.

Notification

At 10:08 a.m., KU sent out a campuswide e-mail alerting people to an unconfirmed report of a man carrying a rifle near Wescoe Hall.

Some of the alerts sent by e-mail were not received until about the time an “all clear” message was issued by KU officials. Maintenance work on the campus’ computer network prevented e-mails from promptly reaching mailboxes, said Denise Stephens, vice provost for information services and chief information officer.

Stephens said the first notification was sent out about 10:08 a.m., but faculty, staff and students didn’t receive the message for another 40 to 45 minutes. Faculty, students and staff relied on word of mouth and personal phone calls to send their own alerts when police began searching the campus.

In addition to the e-mail alert, phone messages also were left on faculty and staff phones. Those calls were made at 10:27 a.m. An alert also was posted on the KU Web site.

About 11 a.m., the university sent out a second e-mail message that said the search was finished. That message took six minutes or less to get to mailboxes, Stephens said.

A new text messaging system that will be used to alert students, faculty and staff about emergencies is expected to be ready by the time the fall semester starts, spokesman Cohen said.

While the first e-mail notice did ask for those in the central campus area to stay indoors, the university did not issue specific information on any other security measures.

The provost’s office is in charge of making the decision of whether evacuations should occur or if people should stay inside, Steeples said.

“We didn’t get any reliable information that indicated there was an emergency that would dictate an evacuation or, for that matter, that would have dictated any sort of ‘stay where you are’ thing,” Steeples said.

Steeples said officials would meet to discuss Friday’s response.

Library lockdown

Although no official word was given to university faculty, many took increased security measures.

About 9:45 a.m., libraries across campus went into lockdown mode. Assistant Dean of Libraries Kent Miller said doors into the libraries were locked and staff monitored the entrances.

The doors were unlocked shortly after 11 a.m. Police gave the “all clear” at 10:42 a.m., Cohen said.

Miller said he was advised by Vice Provost Steeples to use his best judgment on what measures to take.

Because of the complicated nature of the campus libraries – which include Watson, Spencer Research, Anschutz, Arts & Architecture, Engineering, and Music and Dance libraries – the department decided to secure the buildings.

“It was discretionary on our part whether to secure our building, and it seemed like the prudent thing to do,” Miller said.

Miller learned about the incident from a report on LJWorld.com and called campus police to confirm it.

‘Wondering why’

The main office at KU’s School of Business was locked at Summerfield Hall, communication specialist Justin Lueger said.

The business school also sent out e-mails to others in the building to notify people about the situation.

“We all decided to be safe (rather) than sorry,” Lueger said.

The doors also were locked at the dean’s office for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Strong Hall, assistant to the dean Christie Appelhanz said.

Staff placed a sign on the door giving a telephone number and asking people to knock if they needed to get into the office.

Across the street, police told people to leave Wescoe Hall and go to Strong Hall.

Next door, staff in Stauffer-Flint Hall were advised to go to their offices and lock their doors, Professor and Knight Chair in Community Journalism Peggy Kuhr said.

Kuhr said the university’s response rate concerned many people.

“We were reading e-mails, locked in offices, and wondering why we hadn’t heard anything from official KU people,” Kuhr said.

The campus scare came on a day when few students, faculty and staff were on campus. Summer classes start Tuesday.

“That will have to be factored into our post-planning,” Cohen said. “What if there had been 20,000 students on campus instead of only a few?”

Cohen said it appears the maintenance employee thought there was a legitimate reason for concern and no prank is suspected.