Spring Break
84 percent of undergrads post cell numbers on SAGE
by Rachel Marder
Senior Editor
News | 9/25/07
Posted online at 9:04 PM EST on 9/24/07
/ Last updated at 5:36 AM EST on 9/24/07
The University Registrar reported Friday that 84 percent of undergraduates have posted their cell phone numbers on SAGE as part of a new security initiative that allows administrators to send students, faculty and staff text messages in emergency situations.
In the wake of April's shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University has begun implementing several new emergency communications procedures. Aside from text messaging, alert sirens have been placed around campus and administrators can send voice and text messages to campus phones. The new systems cost "well over $100,000," Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said last month.
Seventy-two percent of graduate students, 21 percent of faculty and 27 percent of staff have listed their cell phone numbers as well, according to Perry Hanson, vice president and head of Library and Technology Services. Students cited convenience as a reason to join the list.
"It's convenient if there's an emergency, to be notified about it, instead of having to ask about it… or having to wait for an official e-mail from the University," Rachel Kincad '10 said.
The Registrar's data as of Friday show that 1,494 female undergraduates and 1,246 male undergraduates added their cell phone numbers on SAGE, 82 percent and 86 percent, respectively.
"I have been very impressed with the community response to add this mode of communication," Hanson wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I didn't have a clue what the response would be."
LTS is using Connect-Ed, an academically based emergency communications company, to organize the phone numbers.
Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of New Mexico, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Cincinnati are just a few of the schools that have recently implemented similar text messaging notification systems. Princeton also works with Connect-Ed.
No tests of the text messaging system are currently scheduled, Hanson said.
In the wake of April's shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University has begun implementing several new emergency communications procedures. Aside from text messaging, alert sirens have been placed around campus and administrators can send voice and text messages to campus phones. The new systems cost "well over $100,000," Mark Collins, vice president of campus operations, said last month.
Seventy-two percent of graduate students, 21 percent of faculty and 27 percent of staff have listed their cell phone numbers as well, according to Perry Hanson, vice president and head of Library and Technology Services. Students cited convenience as a reason to join the list.
"It's convenient if there's an emergency, to be notified about it, instead of having to ask about it… or having to wait for an official e-mail from the University," Rachel Kincad '10 said.
The Registrar's data as of Friday show that 1,494 female undergraduates and 1,246 male undergraduates added their cell phone numbers on SAGE, 82 percent and 86 percent, respectively.
"I have been very impressed with the community response to add this mode of communication," Hanson wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I didn't have a clue what the response would be."
LTS is using Connect-Ed, an academically based emergency communications company, to organize the phone numbers.
Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of New Mexico, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Cincinnati are just a few of the schools that have recently implemented similar text messaging notification systems. Princeton also works with Connect-Ed.
No tests of the text messaging system are currently scheduled, Hanson said.
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