 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
|
|
New Phone Technologies Can Help Colleges Communicate Campuswide in Emergencies
 Printer friendly |
 article |
 Subscribe |
 Order reprints |
|
|
|||
 |
Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums | ||
|
Latest Headlines
150 Campuses Win Recognition in Survey of Great Colleges to Work For
More than 300 four-year and two-year colleges signed up for the second annual survey by The Chronicle, and 39 were named to a new Honor Roll for their workplace policies. New Top Republican on House Panel: Washington Doesn't Always Know Best They Thought Globally, but Now Colleges Push Online Programs Locally Jill Biden Shines Global Spotlight on U.S. Community Colleges A Town Rich in Colleges and Cows Gains a Crown Commentary Kevin Carey: Stanford U., Duke U., Rice U., ... and Gates U.? | |||
After deadly massacre at Virginia Tech, students question university's response
Bloggers debate whether students carrying their own guns could have prevented massacre
Colleges' safety and risk-management experts begin looking for lessons in Virginia Tech shootings
Audio interview: the importance of emergency management
Major shootings on American college campuses
Discuss the Virginia Tech shootings
Sallie Mae agrees to $25-billion buyout that would take company private
Cuomo expands student-loan investigation to 13 more lenders and announces a 3rd settlement
Leader of financial-aid officers' group apologizes for criticism of N.Y. inquiry
Achievement gaps and accountability are among key issues discussed by 2-year-college leaders
Audio interview: the most pressing business issues at colleges
4 scholars win Pulitzer Prizes in letters and music
Commencement speakers are announced by 15 colleges
The shooting rampage that killed more than 30 people at Virginia Tech on Monday is causing college administrators elsewhere to rethink whether their institutions have the right technology to immediately notify everyone on the campus of an emergency.
Some college officials say they are confident they could warn students and others of a dangerous situation within seconds of its happening. That's because their campuses have bought telephone systems that have come on the market only in the last few years.
The City University of New York's Bernard M. Baruch College, for example, is among many institutions that have signed up with vendors to provide students with access to campus-related information via cellphone text messages. The service helps students keep abreast of campus events, bulletins, and updates from professors, but it can also serve as a campuswide public-announcement system.
Baruch has been using a service from Rave Wireless, a company based in New York City, for a little over two years, and found it helpful during an incident last summer in which the power went off on the campus, said Arthur Downing, Baruch's chief information officer.
He said the local utility company, ConEdison Inc., told Baruch administrators that it would shut down the power on the campus in half an hour. Within minutes, Baruch's director of communications had sent students a text message alerting them to the outage and telling them that classes would be canceled.
About 4,000 of Baruch's 15,500 students have signed up for the free cellphone service and receive the campus bulletins and alerts. But Mr. Downing said that, this week, he is reminding students who have not enrolled in the program that it might be wise to do so.
Butler University, in Indianapolis, installed a new Internet-based phone system on its campus in 2005. As part of the phone service, the offices of faculty members, administrators, and staff members, as well as dormitory offices, are equipped with a total of about 1,200 phones that immediately warn people via audio and text messages of an emergency on the campus.
Scott A. Kincaid, the university's chief information officers, said the college realized it needed an effective and fast public-announcement system after a police officer was shot and killed on the campus in 2004.