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NIU considers text message alert system
After last year’s Virginia Tech shootings, school officials there implemented a text-message alert system to notify students in case of an emergency.
NIU does not currently have a similar system in place, but it has been discussed, along with other ideas for alerting students in the event of an emergency.
A committee was started at NIU in September and a Virginia Tech report on security was the basis for discussions.
Walter Czerniak, associate vice president of Information Technology Services, was a member of a subcommittee that deals with the aspects of communication.
The committee not only looked into new ways to alert students, but also looked at how to maximize the potential of systems currently in place, Czerniak said.
Many college campuses around the country currently use the text-message alert system, many of which were implemented after the Virginia Tech shootings.
In Illinois, some of the schools with the system in place include University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
If a text-messaging system is implemented here, students would need to have a cell phone and would have to voluntarily sign up.
“A lot of campuses have tried it and they have had different success rates,” Czerniak said. “Sign-up rates haven’t been particularly high.”
Other types of proposed emergency alert services include public address phones with audio speakers and fire alarms with speakers. Both would play a pre-recorded, automated message in the event of an emergency, Czerniak said.
David Gunkel, associate professor of communication, likes the idea of a text message alert system at NIU, but thinks more than one option is ultimately needed.
“The best method would be to use a combination of alert systems,” he said. “No one system is adequate by itself, but a combination of overlapping systems has the best chance of reaching the greatest number of individuals.”
Sabryna Cornish, assistant professor of communication, said the system would have to be able to handle approximately 25,000 text messages at one time.
“As we saw on Feb. 14, the cellular phone system was overloaded and many people had a problem getting calls through,“ she said. “Most of us heard about the shooting through word-of-mouth or via e-mail.”
After the Feb. 14 shootings, some reporters asked Czerniak questions about a text-message alert system they thought NIU had after they heard that students found out about the incident by text message.
One such report appeared in the student newspaper of Southern Illinois University, which incorrectly stated that NIU had such a system in place Feb. 14.
Regardless of the alert system, Czerniak said the most important aspect of emergency response is the people who do the responding.
“In the end, it’s really about having a good police department,” he said.
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In my view, a combination of alarm systems would serve the purpose. It includes text-based alarm system, automated email alarm system, and mechanical systems for people outdoors.