System relays old news, fails to avert emergency 
Carolina Alert, USCs "one-stop emergency information source," delivers outdated news stories instead of breaking alerts, completely defeating its purpose of ensuring campus safety for students, faculty, staff and community.
At approximately 2:45 a.m. on Apr. 14, a student took a cab from Five Points to her residency. Before being dropped off, the taxi driver tried to make her perform sexual acts. The victim refused and the taxi driver would not bring her back to her residency and continued to drive her around, attempting to physically force her to perform those sexual acts. When she again refused, the driver took her back to her residency and left the area, according to Carolina Alert.
This alert was delivered hours after the incident happened, diminishing the alert system's purpose almost entirely and turning the message into a news update instead of a preventative message. The driver of the cab was still driving around campus after the incident had happened, potentially putting more students and members of the community at risk.
Similarly, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, officers with the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety arrested a USC freshman after police received information that the student was suspected of having a handgun inside Maxcy College.
Although law enforcement worked closely with Housing staff to ensure that the subject could not return to or gain access to campus, Carolina Alert did not notify students of this incident until long after it occurred.
Instead of giving students updates of dangerous situations hours after they have already transpired, Carolina Alert would be prudent to improve its system and alert students immediately after situations have been reported in order to prevent other dangerous situations from taking place.
The Carolina Alert website asserts that USC students, staff and community should "be aware of your surroundings and trust your instincts. If a place or situation doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Leave." This eloquent piece of advice doesn't quite take the place of a direct warning that the system should be issuing to students. I don't know about other people, but I personally do not have premonitions of a student hiding several weapons in what is supposed to be a weapon-free residence, and most certainly don't suspect cab drivers to be sexual predators.
Carolina Alert undoubtedly has good intentions and the USC community's interest at heart, but it would be so much more useful if it alerted students and staff of particularly threatening situations instantaneously in order to reach its goal of preventing and preparing for emergencies. Because, honestly, I don't want to be notified of another shooting in Five Points three hours after I've already been there.