North Idaho College has taken measures to improve campus safety by implementing the emergency broadcast system of today’s generation. This fall, NIC will initiate the NICAlerts system, a mass notification system for sending emergency information to students via email and cell phone text messaging.
(Media-Newswire.com) - North Idaho College has taken measures to improve campus safety by implementing the emergency broadcast system of today’s generation.
This fall, NIC will initiate the NICAlerts system, a mass notification system for sending emergency information to students via email and cell phone text messaging.
“Studies have shown that students use cell phones more than any other communication means,” said NIC Campus Security Lieutenant Bob Thomson. “College faculty and staff still rely heavily on traditional e-mail and this new service touches the best of both worlds. The NICAlerts system can send out a mass notification to thousands of subscribers instantaneously and even if traditional cell phone voice service is busy, a text message will go through due to the small amount of bandwidth required when conventional calls would not.”
NIC is following the lead of colleges and universities nationwide that are utilizing this new technology as a way of increasing student safety by utilizing an alert system that is readily at the fingertips of most college students.
The new system also serves as a feasible tool for complying with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which was enacted in 1990 and requires higher education institutions to give timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety and security of students or employees.
“Although the format for the warning has not been mandated, the notice must be timely and reasonably likely to reach the entire campus community,” Thomson said.
A similar emergency notification system helped nab a wanted suspect at Millersville University in Pennsylvania when the university issued mass text messages to students advising them that it was locking down and encouraging them to watch out for a named suspect. Armed with this information, students spotted the wanted individual and called police with his exact location.
Locally, Eastern Washington University in Cheney used an emergency notification system to alert students about a bomb threat on campus last fall.
“NICAlerts is a step into the future and makes our campus just that much safer,” Thomson said.
The NIC Campus Security department initiated the program this summer. Students and college employees are being notified of the new system during new student and employee orientations and will be encouraged to sign up prior to the start of fall semester when a test of the new system is planned.
All NIC staff, faculty, students and parents as well as media representatives and other college affiliates will be invited to register for the free service. Standard text messaging fees and data rates may apply depending on specific cell phone service providers.
NICAlerts will be used only in the most urgent situations, such as emergency campus closures or evacuations due to eminent danger from an attack, threat, or inclement weather. Routine announcements will not be sent via the alert system.
For More Information NIC Campus Security Lieutenant Bob Thomson, ( 208 ) 769-7759
Media Contact Stacy Hudson, Public Information Coordinator ( 208 ) 769-7819 or stacy_hudson@nic.edu
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