On Tuesday, Georgetown Police Chief Jay Gruber notified the university community via email of possible ricin found in a McCarthy dorm room on the sixth floor after D.C. Fire and EMS were called to investigate earlier that morning. Yesterday, Gruber confirmed that the substance tested positive for ricin, a highly toxic and potentially lethal derivative of castor beans. Surface areas in the dorm room where the substance was found did not test positive for ricin, however, and no evidence was found for any biological threat agents.
The University has handled the situation in a timely and efficient manner, keeping residents of McCarthy informed as the investigation unfolded throughout Tuesday and Wednesday. We also commend Georgetown for providing displaced students in the affected eastern wing of the floor with hotel accommodations on Tuesday night.
This reaction is a significant improvement over the University’s treatment of a similar incident that occurred in October 2010, when a DMT lab was uncovered on the ninth floor of Harbin. Several miscommunications plagued students the day authorities investigated reports of a drug operation in the dormitory. For instance, shortly after residents received confirmation that they could re-enter the building, they were re-evacuated on the advice of the Drug Enforcement Administration. As investigations proceeded, Harbin was closed off indefinitely with very little information relayed to displaced students.
Though the promptness with which the university communicated updates to McCarthy residents shows that Georgetown has learned from its experience three years ago, there is room for improvement in the way it handles this kind of emergency. It’s not only the university community that has suffered from a paucity of information about the ricin incident, but more importantly, students directly affected by the closing off of their living quarters have unfairly been kept in the dark about details relevant to their well-being.
For instance, in the email sent by the Office of Residential Living to sixth floor McCarthy residents on Wednesday afternoon allowing them to return to their rooms, there was no mention of whether the substance tested as positive or negative for ricin, and why the rooms needed cleaning. Considering the severity of the situation, and the potential threat posed to students by the findings, it behooves the university to keep students well-informed about goings-on—especially if residents are being let back into their rooms, and any threat has presumably passed.
We hope that, just as the University learned from 2010’s DMT incident, it will improve its response to any future emergencies in light of its deficient communications strategy over the last two days. The face of uncertainty is one thing—withholding vital information from students who deserve to know what’s going on is quite another.
