Shell casings are in a parking lot on Fifth Avenue two weeks after police responded to reports of shots fired in the area.

Students on campus were alerted by MUAlert on Sept. 1 of shots fired near the 1400 Block of Fifth Avenue.

Marcie Simms, vice president for intercultural and student affairs, said the MUAlert was sent out before police arrived on the scene to verify the situation.

“Because of timely warning, we have to send out an alert before we even can verify,” she said.

Simms also said both Huntington Police Department and Marshall University Police Department could not find eye-witnesses.

“They heard a lot of people said they heard somebody or somebody said something,” she  said. “There was no blood found because people reported there was blood. There was no shell casings found.”

No injuries have been reported since the incident.

The following weekend, no Greek Organization was allowed to host events. Simms said it was not because of the alleged incident, but because of concerns of high school students attending parties that weekend. 

An Interfraternal Council meeting took place the week after the incident. Simms said two weeks ago before the meeting that she planned to use  that time to remind the Greek Organizations about the IFC guidelines.

“No one’s having socials this Saturday (Sept. 7) because we are concerned about last week,” Simms said two weeks ago. “Not because of the gunfire, but because we’ve seen or heard about the amount of people who were around – some that weren’t Marshall students, some that were Marshall students.”

Simms said that while the fraternities are good about holding each other accountable, football game days are harder to monitor.

“Football game days are a little bit more difficult,” she said. “That’s where we run into getting a lot of people who just show up, who happen to be walking down the street.”

Simms said her goal is to protect the students and the image of Greek life.

“Let’s be honest, that’s when bad things can happen, that have very negative consequences too,” she said. “You know, my goal was to protect our students, protect the image of Greek life and also allow students to continue to be in Greek fraternities for life, have a positive experience.”

Marshall is unable to provide extra security for fraternity events. Simms said this is because the fraternities directly rent from local landlords. 

Although security cannot be provided, Simms said MUPD always receives a a copy of the party applications so they know what to look for when patrolling.

“Our police also get a copy of who’s having the socials,” she said, “so they’re on that email as well so they know where those parties are occurring.”

According to the IFC guidelines, to hold a social event, fraternities and sororities must include a guest list of who is allowed to attend alongside other paperwork in the applications. Applications must be submitted at least seven days in advance of when the event is to happen. There are also rules about how to host an event where alcohol is allowed and how many sober monitors are required per intoxicated individuals. There are also details about social suspension and how long each suspension lasts. 

Currently, there is no mention of campus carry. The closest guideline that addresses a similar issue is the  requirement that social events be held in clean areas free from hazards.

Corey Cunningham, the associate director of student life, said since the meeting two weeks ago that no changes have been made to the IFC guidelines.

“We haven’t made any additional changes,” he said. “I think that requires more meetings with our folks.”

While changes have not been proposed, Cunningham said the first step that needs to be taken is focusing on enforcing social policies.

“I think it’s just being more committed to our social event policy,” he said, “and doing what we can to make sure that our sober monitors are extra trained.”

Alongside upcoming events such as homecoming and recruitment week, Cunningham said the meeting two weeks ago focused on clearing up what happened after the football game and why so many students were on fifth Avenue near the fraternity houses.

Cunningham said fraternities and sororities are not allowed to hold socials from Sept. 8-22 because of recruitment. Cunningham said everything including the weekend of the incident comes back to being more focused on enforcing the social policy.

“I don’t think anything that happened that weekend is something crazy major,” Cunningham said. “In regards to our social policy is making sure that people are committed back to our social policy.” 

He said the main focus of the meeting was figuring out what needs to be done to ensure there are enough sober monitors keeping an eye on the event and what they have to do to deal with people who disrupt the event.

Cunningham also said the guest list is not just an estimate of how many students will be in attendance. The guest list specifically names both members and non-members who will attend the event.

The appearance of students not on the guest list was higher than normal two weeks ago when the shooting happened. Cunninghham said it was because it was the weekend of the first football game.

“The weather delay got everybody moving away from the stadium,” he said. “Well, people are not going to wait at the stadium.”

Since the meeting, Cunningham has heard from students on ideas to make Greek Life socials safer. Some ideas included bringing back fencing and making the sober monitors more present in crowd control. The fencing would stop unrelated incidents from being blamed on the fraternities, and the sober monitors would be better at keeping people safe when alcohol is present.

Cunningham also said because he does not attend the parties, he does not have the experience to say what needs to be changed to make the events safer. Going forward, he said he hopes members in Greek life reach out and work to find ideas to make events safer for all.

“They know what they need in that moment,” Cunningham said. “Once they bring that to the core and bring that amongst the rest of the council, we can work together and come up with a solution. I think it would be highly ineffective if for all one of myself who is not at the socials, to just say this is what we’re going to do, but let’s work as a team, as a community.”