Or rather, Health and Safety had one for us. Most of us simply cranked the volume on our PC speakers louder to drown out the wailing of the sirens, and stayed put.
Maybe it's an issue for people who're visiting a building, or for students who're only on Campus for a flicker of a celestial eyelid, but for staff who live in a building, the idea of some Skinner-like behavioural programming really just doesn't work. Most of us have enough brain cells to remember where the door is without having to practice.
So while some people bravely went and exposed their CRT-tanned faces to the spring sunshine on University Avenue, I sat in my office and wondered what would happen if it was a real fire.
Would I diligently shut the window, shut stuff down and switch it off and quietly and calmly leave my office, locking my door, filing out of the building...? Forget. My window takes an army of very tall and very strong people to shut - on a good day. On a bad day, the insect life from the virginia creeper would kill them before they could get anywhere near it. Shutting down my PC takes anything from a second - if one plucks out the power cable - to three lifetimes, if one does the Windows-is-shutting-down-your-PC thing. There are simply too many cables to be able to disconnect anything before the building burned to the ground. So nope, if I wanted to get out alive, I'd simply walk out and shut the door behind me. So much for that, then.
I've been through a real building burning down around me episode before, and contrary to the myths, people don't panic. They realise it's a fire, rather than a drill (the billowing smoke might be a clue) and do heroic things like waking up sleeping neighbours and going back for forgotten canaries, but calmly and sensibly. They file down the stairs and out of the doors and make a mental note of anyone missing, and ask around to ensure that there are no grilling bodies left behind. Not because of being drilled, but because of being sensible.
If it was a bomb scare... Would it make much difference if I was sitting in my office, shielded from the bomb by walls so thick that a cellphone signal stands no chance of squeezing through, or standing outside separated from the bomb by a couple of metres and some brittle glass? Hmm... the former sounds like a better bet to me!
Ultimately though - should it not be the individual's choice whether or not to comply? Marshalls (where they exist...) can recommend, assist or monitor, but if someone chooses to stay put in spite of the information, should they try to do more? In the same way that I willingly take my life in my hands every day by driving a car on the Cape Town roads, should I not have the choice over my own risk exposure when the siren sounds?