When a tornado struck Union University this week, administrators used a variety of Web tools, including the institution’s Facebook page, to post up-to-the-minute information.
The page on Facebook, the popular social-networking site, has many of the same updates that were posted on the university’s offical emergency blog. But the Facebook page has also attracted personal comments on the university’s “wall,” an open bulletin board. “I just wanted to send my prayers from Minnesota,” wrote one Facebook user. “It is at times like this when I remember why I love Union!” wrote another, adding that “the community and culture at Union is one that cannot be duplicated elsewhere — or at least, I haven’t found a similar one yet.”
The page also features photographs and videos of the campus’s damaged buildings and of rescue workers responding to the crisis.
Though much has been written about using text messages to alert students and professors to campus emergency information, this is the first we’ve heard of an institution using Facebook this way. —Jeffrey R. Young
