Can Text Messaging Improve School Safety?
Virginia Tech’s recent tragedy provoked questions regarding the competency of emergency notification measures on university campuses nationwide.
Universities are seeking more efficient means of notifying students in times of a crisis, because methods such as e-mail can be delayed reaching students and can even be rejected by a full inbox.
Virginia Tech not only used e-mail messages to alert students, but also announcements on its Web site and alerts through the dormitory phone system–all of which were ineffective in warning students.
E2campus Director of Communications Bryan Crum says text message alerts can reach users within 4 seconds to 8 seconds, can be grouped by particular categories (such as faculty, students, or administration staff), and up to 18,000 messages can be sent from authorized personnel’s handheld devices per minute.
“It’s great for brief, non-emergency messages, too, like ‘the shuttle is out of service’ or ‘Seinfeld on campus tonight,'” Crum added.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from CIO Today (04/20/07); Lane, Frederick.