With the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 a few days away, places across the United States are dedicating the month of September to emergency preparedness. SMU is apart of this effort and started to take action today in Fondren Library.

At 8 a.m. a small group of students, faculty and staff gathered to participated in the first lockdown exercise at a North Texas university. The participants were asked to act like they normally would when they were in Fondren. Suddenly, a strange person would then come through the building, simulating an intruder. The intruder was to fire a foghorn to simulate shots of a gun and people were then suppose to ‘act.’

Although the participants knew they were taking part in an exercise some still felt a scene of anxiety.

“I knew it was an exercise, but it was hard to kind of differentiate my thoughts,” Michelle Hahn, a participant and staff member of Fondren Library, said. “I was also thinking, what would be my reaction in real life. What would I have actually done?”

The lockdown simulation ended with a debrief and experience stories from participants.