Emergencies including severe weather can hit a college campus at a moment’s notice, and a solid emergency response system can often mean the difference between a good outcome and an unfortunate one.
Goshen College has taken that realization to heart with the recent implementation of ActiveCrawl technology, a text-based emergency notification system allowing campus officials to instantly send emergency scrolling alerts to the computer desktops of all students, faculty and staff connected to the campus network.
According to Bill Born, vice president of student life at Goshen College, ActiveCrawl is the most recent addition in a three-tier approach to campus emergency communication employed by the school.
“We started with text messaging. This will be our third year using that technology. Then we made the investment two years ago for a siren above the Umble Center with vocal capability,” Born said. “Then this new system would be the third step in terms of network communication.”
Originally, emergency communication on campus was done primarily through the telephone system, though Born indicated that today’s many advances in mobile technology have rendered such a process obsolete.
“Our old method of communication required an intricate network of people responsible for different buildings,” Born said. “With today’s advances in technology, that system has become dated, so clearly in this day and age this is the best approach moving forward.”
With the college’s new emergency alerting trifecta, students, faculty and staff connected to the campus network can now instantly receive emergency notifications on their cell phones and computers providing special instructions and critical details in the event of an emergency or crisis.
“This even includes people at home who are on the network for whatever reason, maybe checking e-mail or what have you,” Born said. “So in that regard, it can even contact commuters as well. Any computer logged onto the campus network will be notified if a message is sent out.”
According to Born, any such messages will be administered at the discretion of a special Crisis Management Team lead by the special assistant to the president and Born himself.
“There is a Crisis Management Team lead by the special assistant to the president as the first point of reference, and then myself as the second,” Born said, adding that one of the major benefits of the new system is that it can be implemented both on and off campus. “We do have remote access, so we can implement this in a variety of different locations.”
While the college has not yet found it necessary to use the new scrolling desktop alert system, Born said it always pays to be prepared.
“The sole purpose of this new technology was enhanced communication. There was no specific crisis or instance that spurred us to this,” Born said. “At the core, it’s about student and campus safety.”
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