Field Notes from Chapel Hill and Durham: Three Days with UNC and Duke

By Paul Elumeze and Matt Lewis

For a few days last month, Veoci's Education team based itself in North Carolina to spend time with two customers, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University. Both schools use Veoci for emergency management and event management, so the platform that supports them on game day is the same one that’s there the day something goes wrong.

A lot of what our team knows about the people who use Veoci reaches us through support tickets, implementation calls, and conversations at conference booths. Those interactions tell us how customers use the platform, but not about the campus it runs on or the people who depend on it. So when the chance came to see both in person, about a dozen of us jumped at it.

Each visit started at the EOCs. What we heard in both rooms became the theme for the week: the EOC is built for the day it's needed, and most of the work happens on the other days, such as planning events, handling whatever comes up, and getting people ready who otherwise might not think of themselves as responders.

UNC Chapel Hill: From The Pit to Center Court 

When we first arrived, Justin Miller, the Emergency Management Coordinator for UNC Chapel Hill, briefed us. Then he brought us to McCorkle Place, the heart of campus, giving an impressive university history lesson along the way.

Our team was lucky enough to walk onto center court in the Dean E. Smith Center and access the Basketball Hall of Fame. On the way, we passed the football stadium and made sure to peek in and see where UNC brings in big crowds, whether for games, commencement, or other events.

Commencement is the clearest example of “big crowds” at UNC, and it's one Justin knows well. In a Veoci webinar, "Managing Commencement: Graduate from Dated Planning," he walked through how UNC plans and runs the day in Veoci. Commencement planning often means months of email threads to line up speakers, logistics, and transportation. In Veoci, that work sits in one shared space where every department works from the same plan. Response plans are built ahead of time, so when the team activates one on commencement day, tasks go straight to the people who own them. During the ceremony, incidents are logged and mapped, so everyone sees what's happening and where.

The day before the campus tour, Justin invited the team to UNC's EM Preparedness Festival, a campus safety awareness event. We made our way to "The Pit," as students call it, and were soon surrounded by everything Justin and his team had put together.

While some of us went off to learn how to safely use a fire extinguisher from the experts at Chapel Hill Fire Rescue, others visited the many tents set up by different organizations like the National Weather Service, who were prepped and ready to educate on emergency safety and preparedness.

Nobody was in the EOC for this one, and nothing had gone wrong. Instead, the festival brought emergency management to the students, faculty, and staff who would be reading the alert when something does happen. That part of the work doesn’t show up in a briefing room. You have to be out on campus to see it.

Duke University: From Cameron to the Chapel 

The morning after our UNC tour, we drove to Durham for a briefing in Duke's EOC at Smith Warehouse with Michael Lindia, Duke's Emergency Management Coordinator. Afterward, Michael took us out on foot.

We walked across campus and went inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of the Cameron Crazies and Duke's most famous line. Every winter, students pitch tents outside the arena, some for weeks, to get into the Duke–UNC game.

Duke Student Government runs the encampment, known as K-Ville, and its rules let tenters head inside when the temperature drops below freezing, the snow piles up, or the wind picks up. Emergency management's job is keeping those students safe and advising on weather concerns when conditions turn, so the people living in those tents know when it's time to go inside. And don’t worry–tenters keep their spot in line when they do.

At Wallace Wade Stadium, Michael took us up into the box where emergency management works during football games. It's a seat most fans never get, and it showed us where the job happens on game day: above a stadium full of people, watching all of it at once. We heard how inclement weather changes the operation and got to see the whole stadium the way emergency management does, from the gates to the student section.

We finished inside Duke Chapel, the breathtaking Gothic landmark at the center of campus. It was quiet that morning, a far cry from the noise of Cameron or Wallace Wade on a Saturday.

Rivals by Tradition, Teammates When It Counts

Come winter, the tents will go back up outside Cameron Indoor, and the rivalry will take over both campuses. Most people will be watching the scoreboard. We'll be thinking about the people watching everything else: the forecast over K-Ville, the crowd filing out into the cold, the alert that has to reach every phone on campus the moment it's needed.

Duke and UNC don't agree on much, but you wouldn't know it from Justin and Michael. They sit about ten miles apart, on opposite sides of one of college sports' biggest rivalries, and the two coordinators are friendly and have a great working relationship. When the weather turns or the crowds roll in, it helps to know the person doing the same job down the road.

They were generous with our team, too, and time with two experienced Veoci users and supporters was invaluable. Many of us came with questions, and Justin and Michael answered every one, walking us through the details of how they work. Those conversations gave us insight into how we can improve our solutions, not just for UNC and Duke, but for the rest of our customers too. As the Education team keeps building and improving what we offer, that kind of real-world feedback is hard to get any other way.

About the Authors

Paul Elumeze

Paul is an Account Executive at Veoci with nearly eight years of experience spanning SaaS sales and client success, dedicated to helping educational institutions build and maintain operational resilience. He serves as a consultative partner for private and public post secondary institutions focusing on their complex challenges in emergency management and daily operations.

Matt Lewis

As a Solutions Engineer on Veoci's Higher Education team, Matt Lewis partners with colleges and universities to strengthen and streamline emergency preparedness, response, and operational resilience. Drawing on his background as a higher education professional, Matt deeply understands the complex challenges institutions face during critical incidents. He helps campuses implement streamlined, effective solutions for communication, coordination, and incident management so they can respond with confidence.