College Park (Map, News) - The University of Maryland is promoting emergency awareness on the College Park campus this week, at least partially in response to the Virginia Tech massacre last spring, according to university officials.

“The Virginia Tech shooting and the tragedy that happened down there has really heightened everyone’s awareness that tragedy that normally happens in the community can also happen on the college campuses,” said Maj. Jay Gruber of the university police department. “And college campuses have responsibility to keep their communities safe, maybe even a higher responsibility.”

In previous years, Gruber said, the university would distribute emergency awareness information on an occasional basis. But this year, officials said they chose to dedicate a week to getting people signed up for a new emergency text-alert system and providing them with information about emergency situations and how to respond to emergency notifications. The university expects Emergency Awareness Week to become an annual event.

“You never quite know when a tragedy is going to hit, when an emergency is going to hit,” university spokesman Millree Williams said. “We want to take the steps on a periodic basis to try to raise awareness across campus about what the systems are and how to behave when the systems are engaged.”

The university has a text-alert system, a siren system and screens in about 20 buildings that broadcast emergency notifications. All three are tested every month, but only the text-alert system has been used in an emergency situation (a carjacking), Gruber said.

As of mid-September, 8,923 people had signed up for the text-alert service. That number had jumped to 12,180 as of Tuesday morning. Gruber said he hopes to have 25,000 people signed up following Emergency Awareness Week.

Throughout the week, faculty members, the administrative staff, student groups and resident assistants all are sharing emergency information, Williams said. In addition, there will be tables at various prime locations where people can sign up for the alert system and get emergency information.

“I think Emergency Awareness Week is a great idea [especially] considering we have had some crime issues on campus and Virginia Tech is certainly still on everyone's mind in terms of what would we do if that happened here,” said Laura Moore, president of the graduate student association.

dfowler@dcexaminer.com