Local Colleges Explore Emergency Alert Systems

Channel 10 (San Diego), 4/24/07

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, local colleges are exploring new high- and low-tech ways to deliver alerts to students, faculty and staff on campus during emergencies, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

And with dozens of threats to schools across the United States since the slayings in Virginia, colleges are trying to balance the need for extra safety precautions with a tradition of student privacy and an atmosphere of openness on campuses.

San Diego State University, California State University, San Marcos, and the University of California, San Diego are among local campuses looking into installing notification systems that can text message students on their cell phones during a shooting, earthquake, bomb scare or other emergency, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Dean Manship, emergency manager at CSU San Marcos, said he would like to purchase a system that also has the capability to instantly and simultaneously connect with thousands of student and employee home phones, pagers, private e-mails and online instant messaging, the Union-Tribune reported.

Alliant International University is looking into establishing special campus Web pages that would include instructions on where to go and who to contact, and a bulletin board that could help family members determine whether a particular student is OK, according to the newspaper.

Some schools are also looking at low-tech approaches.

UCSD has discussed sending bicycle couriers around campus during emergencies equipped with loudspeakers to broadcast messages, and National University is considering hiring a private security consultant, the newspaper reported.

Next month, CSU San Marcos police will take part in refresher training with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department on how to respond to a campus shooter, the Union-Tribune reported.