NYU is delaying students’ access to university websites such as Brightspace, Handshake and Albert until they complete the newly mandated active threat preparedness course, which was due on Friday.

Students who have yet to complete the training will experience restrictions such as having to reset their NYU password every day and repeatedly receiving reminder messages and banners. The course, announced on Jan. 12,  appears on Brightspace and prompts students to play a 13-minute video about what to do in the case of an active threat on campus, before checking a box to confirm they watched it.

The mandatory training comes after a December shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine others. At a press conference the following day, New York City police commissioner Jessica Tisch said universities would increase security, a few days prior to NYU announcing plans for the new course. 

SPS graduate student Gongpu Nan told WSN he would’ve preferred a group panel or session in a classroom, as opposed to the brief training video. 

“It’s quite unfair, but to be honest, I just received the email earlier, so I completed it immediately,” Nan said.

Despite two universitywide emails, several students previously told WSN that they were unfamiliar with the Brightspace course. Over the past year, the university has notified students of a hoax shooting threat and two bomb threats — including one to Palladium Hall at the start of the spring semester —but a WSN survey in November found that nearly 44% of students were dissatisfied with the Campus Safety alert system.

After many student groups refused to complete a mandatory non-discrimination training module in fall 2024, NYU imposed similar penalties, including extended wait times, mandatory password resets and “other administrative actions.”

“I couldn’t log in to the wifi this morning, and when I turned it on, it said it got disrupted because I didn’t complete the course,” Stern first-year Vinh Tran said. “I think it’s fair since it’s actually posing a real responsibility to you to complete it, especially having to constantly reset your password.”

NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella previously told WSN that the Campus Safety-developed course will be required annually. CAS senior Angela Mejia said the department has been doing “a good job” over the past few years, but the penalties for not completing the training were excessive.

“It’s a little extreme to be going that far, because we are students, and every day we are trying to do assignments and work,” Mejia said. “Completing the active threat training is one of the things that we don’t really consider.”

Contact Justin Yen at [email protected].