Edie isn't thrilled with the idea of a university for mind control. It's sorta...everything she was raised better than. Still. You know what it's not? An apocalyptic wasteland filled with killer robots.
She and Emily still have their guards up. Nobody is trying to kill them--killing them shouldn't be possible, here, if they take the idea of the Death Ward seriously. But death is not the only thing worth guarding against, and Edie takes the safety of their minds seriously.
And so, as they enter the room, Edie reaches out to the minds ahead. There are eleven already in the auditorium. She looks around, Emily's gaze tracking independently and feeding her a second set of visual information, to match minds to faces.