To raise the alarm, use cellphones?
Colleges weigh text messaging as a tool to warn students of danger, in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
from the May 8, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
More cameras, loudspeakers, and sirens
To some extent, it's already happening.
The University of Iowa is accelerating plans to install a campuswide public-address system. The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis already has hundreds of cameras pointed to all corners of campus. Some colleges are incorporating video-scanning software that brings attention to unusual behavior, such as someone falling down. The University of Washington is mulling over whether to install warning sirens across campus.
At Radford University, neighbor of Virginia Tech, officials are going over emergency plans with a "fine-tooth comb," says spokesman Rob Tucker. Radford is now installing sirens and loudspeakers across campus.
But text messaging offers a new approach, and more schools are implementing systems that can send warnings to everyone or to a specific group of people. Penn State in University Park, which fired up its text-message system in the fall, has already used it at least 20 times to announce weather warnings and campus closures.
Virginia Tech began to look at text messaging after an escaped convict shot and killed a police officer and a security guard near campus at the start of the semester. When student Cho Seung-Hui went on his rampage on April 16, the school was still weighing its options. Finding a workable service proved to be a tougher task than originally thought, says Mark Owczarski, director of news and information at Virginia Tech.
Text messaging 'not a magic bullet'
A key problem with many text-messaging services is that they require students to subscribe, which will automatically limit how widely it's used. For that reason, "I'm not sure that text messaging is the magic bullet," says Mr. Owczarski. "But we will have a system in place [at Virginia Tech] very soon, and we will be working aggressively to get people to register."
Texas A&M University in College Station has been inundated with pitches from firms hawking the latest alarm technologies, some offering "magic button" products.
Many university officials are wary. Expectations of instant and individual communication, for one, increase colleges' liability exposure if the technology is not as effective as advertised. And cellular communication falls under privacy laws that may limit how widely it can be used.
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