Armed with everything from a loud siren and public address system in the middle of campus to high tech text messaging, Southeastern Louisiana University unveiled the newest components of its emergency alert system.
“We have been working for months now on upgrading our security plans and integrating various alert systems so that in the case of an emergency or crisis we will have multiple means of communicating emergency messages quickly to the campus community,” said Southeastern President Randy Moffett.
The latest pieces to be added to the multi-layered alert system include the sending of text messages to cell phones and emergency notices to phones and personal computers.
The cell phone text messaging system will allow brief emergency messages to be communicated to faculty, staff and students at the rate of 6,000 messages per minute. Through a statewide program initiated by the Louisiana Board of Regents and supported by the University of Louisiana System, Southeastern will use the Baton Rouge-based company FirstCall to distribute its text, voice and electronic messages.
All students, faculty and staff are currently registered with FirstCall through their campus e-mail accounts to receive alert messages through that medium.
The alert system can also include text messages that will be sent to personal cell phones, if students and others on campus submit their cell phone numbers in order to receive the text alert messages. Additionally, those who opt to provide supplemental contact information will be able to submit up to two phone numbers at which they'd like to receive voice messages and a secondary e-mail address for electronic messaging.
“We will strongly encourage our students to take full advantage of this service, but it will be their responsibility to provide additional information in order to do so,” Moffett said. “We will use all the channels of communication that we have available to communicate to our students the importance of providing multiple means of contact, but it will still remain up to the students to sign up for notifications beyond their campus e-mail accounts. We urge parents to strongly encourage their students to sign up for the services.”
Starting today, e-mail messages will be sent to all students, faculty and staff providing them with information about the system and a temporary password they can use to submit their cell phone and other numbers as well as a supplemental e-mail address. Once that information is submitted, registrants will receive a follow-up e-mail confirming the receipt of their additional means of contact.
Moffett said he hopes Southeastern will have a high rate of success in getting students to sign up for the text message alerts. At many institutions, fewer than 25 percent of the students participate.
“We are emphasizing that this text messaging system will be used only in emergencies and that the information that is shared with us will be kept strictly confidential,” he added.
“Judging from the experiences at other campuses – especially those that have had some serious incidents -- we know that no one means of communication can be completely successful on its own,” Moffett said. “We deliberately built redundancy into our systems to reach as many people as possible.”
Other elements of Southeastern's emergency alert system include: