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Colleges turn to text messages as warnings during emergencies
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(Examiner file photo)
Thousands of Virginia Tech students gathered at the Cassell Coliseum the weekend after the shootings to hear officials deliver speeches during a convocation to mourn those killed in the catastrophic gun attack. Along with buying books and moving into dorms this month, college students across the Baltimore region will sign up for text-message alerts Maryland universities have established since the Virginia Tech massacre. More than a dozen Maryland colleges have or plan to install text-message alert systems this fall so students can learn about emergencies from their cell phones, personal digital assistants, BlackBerries, pagers and e-mail inboxes. Martha Schnare, a junior at University of Maryland, College Park, praised the technology. Her school sends a monthly text and e-mail to assure students that they are still signed up. “I think kids are in support of it for obvious reasons,” said Schnare, an English literature major. “I didn’t connect with the Virginia Tech students personally, but I definitely felt like there are so many people you don’t know on campus, especially at a large one, that it could happen to any college. There are plenty of stressed-out people.” Virginia Tech school officials did not alert students about the shooting until more than two hours after the first shots rang out, prompting school administrators across the nation to examine what they could do to avoid a similar delay in an emergency. “Certainly, we are mindful of the fact that what happened at Virginia Tech will be on the minds of students and their parents when they come to class,” said Dennis O’Shea, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins University, which plans to unveil a texting system this fall. “Clearly, one of the lessons of the tragedy was the importance of having immediate notification.” Every year, students living in dormitories don’t activate their room phones, instead relying on their mobiles, said David Satterlee, director of new student programs at Towson University. “We’re keeping up with students in terms of how they communicate,” he said. But text alerts have their drawbacks, said Brett Sokolow, an attorney who advises colleges on how to improve security. “They have the potential to be a Band-Aid when you need a cast,” said Sokolow, president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management. “It’s the easiest and cheapest way to do something and it can be helpful. But my concern is that rather than investing in more counselors or crisis-management plans, we are just investing in the response, not prevention.” Common practices of both faculty and students can prevent text alerts from working, as well. Most professors instruct their students to turn their mobiles off during class, Sokolow said, and many students now use two cell phones: the one their parents gave them and another their parents don’t know about. “And when students don’t sign up or they change their number, will they remember to update it?” Sokolow asked. The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators advocates that colleges use other technology, such as sirens, e-mails and radio announcements in conjunction with text alerts as part of a “multilayered approach” to safety, association Associate Director Christopher Blake said. College Park uses a siren as well as text messages. In addition to texting, Towson students will soon hear live or recorded announcements through speakers placed on the outside of buildings. The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, installed text alerts last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to give students weather-related updates. But the school had to employ it when a student attacked three others. Just days after the Virginia Tech slayings, a former UMES basketball player allegedly shot two students and stabbed another at off-campus apartments. “The system provided the students with a sense of security so that they weren’t caught off-guard,” UMES spokeswoman Suzanne Waters Street said. “They developed a new appreciation for it.” Maryland colleges with text-alert systems Anne Arundel Community College; Baltimore City Community College; Bowie State University; Coppin State University; Loyola College in Maryland; Morgan State University; The Johns Hopkins University; Towson University; University of Baltimore; University of Maryland Baltimore; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; University of Maryland, Shady Grove. kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com |
