Lt. Jill Weisensel ran the training for freshmen. Photo courtesy of Lt. Jill Weisensel

During freshman orientation this year, Marquette University Police Department updated their active shooter training for students.

“This summer we looked at our program and the training that we were giving, and we changed it,” Jeff Kranz, MUPD assistant chief, said. “In our old presentation we went into a lot of history about active shooters and how active shooters behave and looked at the events themselves, but I’m very sorry to say there’s been a lot of examples of them lately, and we don’t really need to do that. (This) generation has grown up with drills. What we’re focusing on more now is the response to one.”

Lt. Jill Weisensel said MUPD did a 30-minute presentation for the entire class of 2023 on what to do in the event of an active shooter on campus. She said they showed a video produced by the FBI called, “Run, Hide, Fight.”

“We use the ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ model to give everyone on campus a baseline of what they can do in the event of an active shooter,” Weisensel said. 

Weisensel said the video breaks down each element further: how to run and get as far away as possible, how to not only hide but to barricade and how to defend one’s life. 

“I think the ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ was really good to have. It’s really easy to remember, and you can always go back to it if you’re ever in that situation,” Sophie Tobbin, a freshman in the College of Education, said.

Weisensel said they also talked about prevention. 

We don’t even want to respond to one of these — we want to prevent it from happening,” Weisensel said. “All students, faculty and staff have a role to play in caring for each other and listening and watching for warning signs to get people help and the resources they need.”

Kranz said MUPD is trying to educate people on signs of distress so that they can do an intervention. He said attacks are not a spur of the moment thing. 

“We’re teaching a lot more about the warning signs of somebody that’s in distress that could possibly go down that path,” Kranz said. “We’d like to get in front of it and hopefully stop somebody from doing it before it happens and stop them in a way that we can intervene and get them help — not get them into the criminal justice system.” 

If someone is worried about an individual who may be at risk, Weisensel said there are several reporting options.

“You can easily come talk to MUPD, the counseling center, Resident Assistants, professors — pretty much anyone you can report to,” she said. “We also have anonymous reporting options on the MUPD website and also through the EagleEye app.”

The EagleEye App is MUPD’s app featuring various services to ensure safety on campus.

“I didn’t really have a lot of prior training. I went to a private school so we had a lot of security. I thought it was really interesting,” Molly Denten, a freshman in the College of Engineering, said. “I think Lt. Jill did a really good job. It feels better being taught by an actual police officer on how to actually respond to that.”

Weisensel said she wants every single person on campus to know that they have a role to play to make campus a safer and more enjoyable environment. 

“We say we’re men and women for others, and we care for everybody equally, and the more we do that, the healthier this environment will be,” Weisensel said.