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UVA LAUNCHES TEXT ALERT SERVICE-THE DAILY PROGRESS, JULY 7, 2007

Posted: Saturday July 7, 2007

UVa Launches Text Alert Service

By Brian McNeill / bmcneill@dailyprogress.com | 978-7266
July 7, 2007

When Katie Hickson received an e-mail from the University of Virginia on June 29 informing her about its new campus-wide emergency alert text messaging system, she signed up immediately.

“With everything that happened at Virginia Tech, we saw how hard it is to get in touch with people you care about elsewhere on grounds during an emergency,” said Hickson, a third-year psychology and elementary education student at UVa. “I feel like it’s going to make such a difference for our safety.”

As part of its efforts to keep its students, faculty and staff informed in times of imminent danger, UVa has launched a service that instantly delivers emergency text messages to cell phones.

“Clearly text messaging to cell phones is going to reach a lot of folks quickly in an emergency situation,” said Mike McPherson, associate vice president and deputy chief information officer at UVa.

So far, 4,442 people have signed up for UVa’s text messaging service, at a rate of 100 new registered users per day, said UVa spokesman Jeff Hanna. The university has 20,397 students and 13,458 full- and part-time employees. The service is open only to UVa students, faculty and staff.

The text messaging service will only be used for the most serious emergencies, such as having a gunman on campus or a natural disaster, Hanna said.

“We’ll only use it during real emergencies,” he said.

Text messaging is increasingly popular among cell phone users, particularly young people. According to wireless industry group CTIA, 158 billion text messages were sent in 2006 – an increase of 95 percent over the previous year.

In a crisis, phone networks can become jammed, as they did during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Because text messaging requires less data than a voice call, texting is more likely to get through in the middle of an emergency.

UVa signed up for the text messaging service last fall, before its need was spotlighted by the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech, which left 33 students and faculty members dead, including the gunman.

The system went live at UVa on July 1. Virginia Tech also added an emergency alert text messaging system on July 2.

Working with e2Campus, a division of Omnilert LLC in Leesburg, the UVa text messaging system will cost the university around $19,000 per year.

“Most students are coming to campus with cell phones, so it makes a lot of sense,” said Ara Bagdasarian, president of Omnilert.

Since the Virginia Tech massacre, Bagdasarian said, an increasing number of higher education institutions are signing up with his firm. So far, 86 schools have added the service, including Penn State, Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington & Lee University.

The text messaging service is part of a larger strategy at UVa to enhance communications during emergencies. Also this summer, UVa is installing a dozen LCD message boards at public spaces around campus – at a cost of $65,000 – which will display information about events and news. In a crisis, the screens will show emergency alert information.

UVa already sends out mass e-mails to students, faculty and staff with emergency information. The university is also considering installing sirens that would ring out in an emergency, McPherson said.