Spring Break
Emergency notification system still under the radar
Andrea Frainier
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News
Despite the fliers, posters, e-mails and announcements advertising Alert-SJSU, only 16 percent of the SJSU community has signed up for the mass messaging system designed to notify students, faculty and staff in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.
"This would enable us to get a message out to the students to avoid a certain area, to shelter in place or to lockdown a classroom," said Special Services Lieutenant Frank Belcastro.
Powered by Connect-ED, a mass messaging platform designed for higher education, Alert-SJSU gives the university the means to reach students, faculty and staff within minutes. Instructions would be sent to recipients via e-mail or text message and audio messages would be sent to cell phones or landlines. A message would also be broadcasted to classrooms through a public address system.
Partly inspired by last year's Virginia Tech shooting that claimed 32 lives, the university implemented Alert-SJSU as a precautionary measure against unforeseen circumstances.
"I know that people in general and students particularly, like to think that nothing bad is ever going to happen," Belcastro said. "But in emergency planning we say you always think the best, but you got to plan for the worst."
Elyssa Fox, a sophomore psychology major, thinks it would be a good idea to have an alert system to keep people safe. "It's such a big place, she said. "How are you going to know if anything's happening?"
Alert-SJSU is available to all students, faculty and staff at the university, but it's a voluntary program for which individuals sign up through MySJSU.
"(The university) wants you to make your own decision," Belcastro said. "It's a decision I believe is easy to make. There is nothing within that system that's going to take any freedom away from you. It's going to give you a piece of information for you to act on."
Zaki Khan, a senior engineering major, said he would have signed up for the program if he had heard of it.
"This would enable us to get a message out to the students to avoid a certain area, to shelter in place or to lockdown a classroom," said Special Services Lieutenant Frank Belcastro.
Powered by Connect-ED, a mass messaging platform designed for higher education, Alert-SJSU gives the university the means to reach students, faculty and staff within minutes. Instructions would be sent to recipients via e-mail or text message and audio messages would be sent to cell phones or landlines. A message would also be broadcasted to classrooms through a public address system.
Partly inspired by last year's Virginia Tech shooting that claimed 32 lives, the university implemented Alert-SJSU as a precautionary measure against unforeseen circumstances.
"I know that people in general and students particularly, like to think that nothing bad is ever going to happen," Belcastro said. "But in emergency planning we say you always think the best, but you got to plan for the worst."
Elyssa Fox, a sophomore psychology major, thinks it would be a good idea to have an alert system to keep people safe. "It's such a big place, she said. "How are you going to know if anything's happening?"
Alert-SJSU is available to all students, faculty and staff at the university, but it's a voluntary program for which individuals sign up through MySJSU.
"(The university) wants you to make your own decision," Belcastro said. "It's a decision I believe is easy to make. There is nothing within that system that's going to take any freedom away from you. It's going to give you a piece of information for you to act on."
Zaki Khan, a senior engineering major, said he would have signed up for the program if he had heard of it.
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emergency notification
posted 9/09/08 @ 2:29 PM PST
I find this article very interesting and it points to an issue facing many schools as they implement their emergency notification services. One of the big problems that colleges and universities face is that, after purchasing and installing a mass notification service, students are slow to sign up for it. (Continued…)
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