When severe weather and the possibility of a tornado struck Ingham County about two years ago, criminal justice senior Charles Brown was notified by a text message sent to his cell phone using MSU’s emergency text message system.
Following the recent unveiling of MSU’s new emergency alert system, students such as Brown can be notified of similar incidents not only by text message, but also by a voice message at up to three phone numbers and an e-mail address, in addition to MSU contact information.
Created by a commercial developer called Blackboard Connect-Ed and offered free of charge to students, the new system is much more “robust” than MSU’s former emergency text message alert system, allowing for more widespread use and the implementation of more devices, MSU police inspector Bill Wardwell said.
The system has the ability to call a landline to leave a voice message, send an e-mail and send a text message all at once, he said.
“It’s one more method of communicating imminent danger,” Wardwell said. “For years we had tornado sirens, but we didn’t have any way (to let you know) if you’re walking to Berkey Hall and there’s an imminent danger there and we want you to stay away.”
Subscribers of the system will be notified any time there is an impending and widespread threat on campus, Wardwell said. The system is part of the university’s effort to keep the community informed of any type of danger, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.
“We want to make sure the community is notified in a fast and efficient manner, and I think this new system is going to help us do that,” she said.
Information listed in the MSU directory and the old system already has been entered into the system, bringing the number of people notified in emergency situations from about 16,000 to about 71,000, Wardwell said.
Students can register additional information by visiting alert.msu.edu. With more than 60,000 staff and students, MSU is the largest single-campus residential system in the country, making the ability to communicate essential, university spokesman Kent Cassella said.
“On any given day, we are our own small city here,” he said. “(It’s) very important for us to have as rapid communication as possible. That’s why we’re continuously looking at more systems and upgrading to make sure we have the best one that fits our needs.”
Brown, who knew to make his way to a basement two years ago because of the former alert system, said he likely will look into the new system.
“With past incidents at other universities, I’d want to be notified if there was some type of violent incident on campus,” he said.
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