University looks to increase texting

By Liz Wagner
Collegian Staff
October 10, 2007

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, La Salle University has created an emergency text messaging system as a way to efficiently alert students, faculty and staff during campus emergencies. However, of the 6,000 full and part-time college students and 1,200 campus employees of the University, only a little over 1,000 people are currently registered to receive emergency texts.

“It’s not enough for us,” said Director of Safety and Security, Arthur Grover. “Many people have responsibly signed up, but we have to continue to market the system.”

The new system will alert the La Salle population in the event of a campus-wide emergency such as a fire, campus violence, or a weather emergency.

Since the system’s creation, students have been informed of its existence through letters, the myLaSalle portal and Day One presentations. In the hopes of getting more students signed up, the University is mounting another promotion campaign that includes system updates on the portal.

Joseph Donovan, the assistant vice president for marketing and communications, has spearheaded the promotion of the system and believes that the most recent campaign effort has been effective in reaching out to students and parents. According to Donovan, family weekend was particularly advantageous. Although the number had been shy of 1,000 before the campaign, Donovan says 100 more people have signed up since this past weekend.

“We have the new technology, now we’re just hoping people will take advantage of it,” Donovan said.

According to Director of Information Technology Ed Nickerson, the creation of the La Salle emergency text message system was a collaborative effort among Security and Safety and University Communications, Division of Student Affairs, Business Affairs and IT. Nickerson says the system is inexpensive for the University because they already had the software needed. In addition, the cost of registering is just the cost of a text message.

To register, students are required to click the Brother LUWIS icon on the portal, select the “Personal Information” tab, and scroll down to the last choice on the list, “Emergency Text Message Alert System.”

Other universities are taking similar precautions. Various reports confirm that Delaware State University is now looking into a text-messaging alert system for their campus, because of a double shooting that occurred Sept. 21. Meanwhile, after the University of Memphis experience a shooting-related student death, an additional 1,300 students registered for its emergency texting system, according to tennessean.com. These facts prompt the question: Will students need an emergency at La Salle to prompt them to register for the system?

La Salle officials have considered this possibility, and that is a major factor for the campaign push. The hope is to have most Lasallians registered for the system before such an event could occur, University officials said.

“We’ve had a good response so far, but we can do better,” said Grover. “I encourage all students, faculty and staff to sign up.”

wagnere1@lasalle.edu