By Zoe Deal A Western Alert text on Saturday, Nov. 4, reported an assault and robbery in the 1200 block of Holly Street. The event occurred at 6 p.m. The Western Alert was sent out at around 7 p.m. The suspect allegedly assaulted another man and stole his hat, according to the accompanying email alert. No weapons were involved. Students who chose not to seek more information after seeing the text could have been mislead to think there was a larger threat. Paul Cocke, Director of Western’s Office of Communications and Marketing, said in an email, “Whenever we send a Western Alert there is a determination that there is an imminent threat to health or safety. Since there was a violent assault by a suspect still at large in an area where many students live, the desire was to send out the alert as soon as possible to alert people in that area of an act of violence there.” The expectation is that students will see their email for more information, Cocke said. The text alert system has a 140 character limit, the Nov. 4 alert was 137 characters.
