Local Colleges Call for Text Alerts Warning of Emergencies
By Matthew Bowers, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Apr. 27–Christopher Newport University added cell phone text messaging Thursday to its ways of warning students and staff about campus emergencies.
The College of William and Mary sent letters to parents Wednesday evening saying it plans to do the same, hoping to have its service in place early next month. Old Dominion University and the University of Virginia said they expect to have the service in place by fall.
The schools join many across the country that are enhancing their emergency communications after last week’s mass shootings at Virginia Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 students and professors before taking his own life.
“If you’re trying to get a message out to the community, you use a media mix,” said Carolyn Cuthrell, a spokeswoman for Christopher Newport in Newport News. “You go to where your consumer is. If you’re going to do effective communication, you go to the outlets they are using.”
A 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center, The Associated Press and AOL showed that 48 percent of cell phone customers use text messaging or would if they had the feature. That figure jumps to 79 percent for those ages 18 to 29, and an increasing number of users are receiving news alerts and other information via their phones.
Christopher Newport has been working on its text messaging system since the fall, when it launched a new emergency Web site, www.cnualert.info, Cuthrell said. Students were told Thursday that they could start registering their cell phone numbers to receive the alerts.
Participation is voluntary. There’s no charge to students, although their service providers may charge fees for each message received, depending on their plans.
“But we figure that safety is priceless,” Cuthrell said. “It’s not something we’re going to use… to say, ‘There’s a concert tonight.’ We’re going to use this for emergencies.”
Elsewhere, Rutgers University in New Jersey bought a system days before the Virginia Tech shootings and implemented it this week. Cornell University in New York did the same a few days after the shooting — and about a week after Allen Bova, the school’s director of risk management and insurance, published in an industry newsletter a scenario eerily foreshadowing the Tech case.
In urging colleges to beef up their emergency communications, including using cell phones, Bova asked what might happen if a gunman took hostages in a second-floor classroom, and authorities were trying to warn those on other floors.
E2Campus, a Leesburg company that provides emergency text messaging and related services to colleges, had four clients a year ago, said Nick Gustavsson, founder and chief technology officer. That increased to 25 by late fall and to at least 35 before last week.
Since the Tech shootings, his client list has almost doubled to 75, Gustavsson said. He pitched in Thursday to answer customer service calls.
“A siren on campus wailing like it was 1941 London was the state of the art” before cell phones came along, he said. “You’ve got to reach them where they are.”
He said he charges colleges about $1 per student per year. What’s considered an emergency varies by school. A customer in Florida used its system to warn students of a pit bull loose on campus.
An Old Dominion student liked the idea of emergency messages, but said rules about using cell phones on campus might have to change.
“The only issue is, how would you get the message out?” said Charles Glover, a junior from Suffolk. “Because teachers have gotten so strict” about using cell phones in classrooms.
He suggested requiring professors to be plugged into the alert system and keep a cell phone capable of sending text messages turned on during classes.
ODU started getting calls and e-mails from vendors of such systems within days of the Tech shootings, spokeswoman Jennifer Mullen said.
Locally, Norfolk State University, Tidewater Community College and Paul D. Camp Community College reported they’re not immediately considering emergency text messaging, although they’re always reviewing their crisis plans.
Virginia Wesleyan College is researching the issue, along with adding emergency messages on computers and an alarm or message system from the campus bell tower.
Most schools communicate emergency information in many ways, including e-mail, Web sites, electronic message boards, closed-circuit TVs, sirens, public-address systems, fliers, and even student runners.
Adding text messaging won’t change that, said Carol Wood, a spokeswoman for U.Va. “Not everybody is plugged in,” she said.
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