University of Maryland officials on the College Park campus soon will be able to notify students, faculty and staff of emergency situations through text messages on their cell phones.

“The fact that we are proceeding very rapidly is related to Virginia [Tech],” said Maj. Cathy Atwell of the university’s police department. “But it is a technology that we have been reviewing for some time.”

On April 16, Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui gunned down 32 students and teachers on the Blacksburg campus in two attacks.

The first attack occurred at about 7 a.m., but university officials didn’t send students e-mails and record messages on campus phones notifying them of the incident until more than two hours later. When the second attack occurred at about 9:30 a.m., the campus still hadn’t been locked down.

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Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said a lockdown would have been impractical because thousands were already en route or on campus when the first shootings began.

Text messages go straight to cell phones, which people frequently carry with them. “Text messaging is a technology that allows you to put a message into a database and electronically send it immediately,” Atwell said.

According to Atwell, the University of Maryland is reviewing its emergency procedures in the wake of the Virginia Tech incident. “And, in that review, purchasing and implementing a text message technology on the campus is a top priority,” she said.

University spokesman Millree Williams said, “It could be a matter of days or another week” before the system is purchased. Soon after, Williams said Monday, the system should be functional. “We need to test it, put it in place and troubleshoot system needs, capabilities and limitations,” he said. “Then, it will take some time for our university family to register.”

Student Government Association President Emma Simson said she welcomes the initiative.

“So many students have cell phones now that a text-messaging service will enable universities to reach a large majority of its students,” she said.

But, she warned, “Not all students have cell phones, so the university will have to examine how to reach students that do not have cell phones.”

dfowler@dcexaminer.com