A shortcoming was that traffic congestion pockets occurred at times during the evacuation, an HCC official said.
Student and faculty members leave campus buildings in cars and on foot after the school was put into lockdown Tuesday.
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College officials on Wednesday met to evaluate the college's response after a threat led them to close and evacuate the campus on Tuesday.
One thing that went right, said Erica Broman, vice president for institutional development, was the evacuation of the 3,000 students and staff from the college occurred without major problems.
A shortcoming was that traffic congestion pockets occurred at times during the evacuation, she said.
"I think we could have done a better job of trying to get folks off campus," Broman said.
HCC officials will work with the Massachusetts State Police on ways to ease such clogging during an evacuation. One way might be to use the method employed when July 4th fireworks displays are held at the college, with all roads converted to two exit lanes, Broman said.
Also, additional campus security staff might be stationed to direct traffic. Five campus security staffers were on duty during the evacuation but it was unclear how many were directing traffic, she said.
Another step that could help with traffic flow is at least a year away, the long-discussed construction of a fourth road into the campus off of Route 202, she said.
Now, two entrances to the campus are on Homestead Avenue and a third is at George Frost Drive feeding onto Jarvis Avenue, she said.
Cameron Faniel, 23, of 383 Beacon Circle in Springfield, faces a single charge of bomb / hijack threat with serious public alarm. Faniel was arrested by state police Tuesday night in Springfield, according to Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni.
An official at HCC on Wednesday confirmed that Faniel was a student there, but Broman declined to provide additional information, such as how long he had attended school there or his field of study. She said the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act prohibits disclosure of such information about college students.
While the Emergency Preparedness page on HCC's website contains no information, HCC's Annual Security Report for 2011 [pdf] outlines recommended steps for evacuating the campus in an emergency:
"Emergency Response and Evacuation ProceduresIt is the policy of HCC to notify, without delay, the campus community of any confirmed significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health and safety of students or employees. The content of the notification will be determined and the notification system will be initiated unless, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, the release of such notification at that time would compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. The notification system’s purpose is to provide brief and immediate instructions to the campus community and identify other resources where additional information can be obtained. During an emergency, detailed information about an incident would be provided in other forms of communication, such as: email, website, voice mail, and emergency bulletins issued through the media. All students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to sign up for the college’s emergency notification service, at www.hcc.edu (click on Emergency Notification)."