Spring Break
Admin initiates text-messaging alert system
by Rachel Marder
Senior Editor
News | 8/28/07
Posted online at 4:45 AM EST on 8/28/07
The University is implementing new security measures due to heightened concerns over campus safety following last April's shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, administrators said.
Colleges across the country have announced plans to unveil new emergency communications procedures in response to the shootings, where Virginia Tech student Seung Hung-Choi shot and killed 33 and injured 25 on his campus.
In an Aug. 7 campuswide e-mail, Executive Vice President for Campus Operations Peter French announced that Brandeis "recently purchased and installed a campus-wide siren-alert system and upgraded our existing email, telephone and Web communications capabilities."
Though he couldn't provide individual figures, Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said the added technology in total costs "well over $100,000."
Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said he, other administrators and Waltham officials convened "in earnest" over the summer to discuss how Brandeis' technology could be upgraded to improve security. These talks resulted in the development of new systems "on the cutting edge of communicating…to the community," Callahan said.
Sirens, which have been placed at the Volen Center, the Rabb Graduate Center and by the Spingold Theater parking lot (one more will be affixed near the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center), will be activated to alert students, faculty and staff to check their cell phone text messages for security instructions, Callahan said.
"The vendor did a topographical study," Callahan said, "so the tones could be emitted to the campus on a consistent fashion."
Students, faculty and staff can voluntarily submit their cell phone numbers and any other e-mail addresses and emergency contact numbers on SAGE at http://crisis.brandeis.edu/index.html.
Vice-President and Vice-Provost of Library and Technology Services Perry Hanson said the University signed with Connect-Ed, an academically based emergency notification company, to send out text messages to cell phones in emergency situations. The messages will contain safety instructions, Hanson said.
Colleges across the country have announced plans to unveil new emergency communications procedures in response to the shootings, where Virginia Tech student Seung Hung-Choi shot and killed 33 and injured 25 on his campus.
In an Aug. 7 campuswide e-mail, Executive Vice President for Campus Operations Peter French announced that Brandeis "recently purchased and installed a campus-wide siren-alert system and upgraded our existing email, telephone and Web communications capabilities."
Though he couldn't provide individual figures, Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said the added technology in total costs "well over $100,000."
Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said he, other administrators and Waltham officials convened "in earnest" over the summer to discuss how Brandeis' technology could be upgraded to improve security. These talks resulted in the development of new systems "on the cutting edge of communicating…to the community," Callahan said.
Sirens, which have been placed at the Volen Center, the Rabb Graduate Center and by the Spingold Theater parking lot (one more will be affixed near the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center), will be activated to alert students, faculty and staff to check their cell phone text messages for security instructions, Callahan said.
"The vendor did a topographical study," Callahan said, "so the tones could be emitted to the campus on a consistent fashion."
Students, faculty and staff can voluntarily submit their cell phone numbers and any other e-mail addresses and emergency contact numbers on SAGE at http://crisis.brandeis.edu/index.html.
Vice-President and Vice-Provost of Library and Technology Services Perry Hanson said the University signed with Connect-Ed, an academically based emergency notification company, to send out text messages to cell phones in emergency situations. The messages will contain safety instructions, Hanson said.
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