The Drury Mirror

Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: News

Text messages are also sent to notify students of class cancellations.

The campus went on lock down Monday after an active shooter was reported at the nearby Cox hospital campus. Safety and Security notified the campus of the threat via e-mail within minutes of the report, but failed to send a text message alert.

Many students were confused why only e-mails were sent.

"We spent money on that system for a reason, false alarm or not," said Sam Moore, senior. "After what happened in Illinois last week, near real time text messaging has the potential to do a lot more than e-mails alone."

Sarene Deeds, director of safety and security, says she did attempt to send out an emergency text message - twice - but the system used to send the alerts crashed. "We are working vigorously to correct the issue," said Deeds.

The text messaging system was installed over the summer in an effort to better reach members of the Drury community in a time of emergency. Money to install the system came from an outside donor. Campuses across the country installed similar systems after the Virginia Tech campus shootings.

But aside from technical glitches, other issues with the system remain to be worked out.

The system was effectively used to notify students of class cancellations do to inclement weather last Monday, Feb. 11. When classes were cancelled on Tuesday morning, however, no message was sent. Students who only checked their phones in the morning arrived at their morning classes only to find empty buildings.

"They made a big deal about the system being something students can count on," said Jon Marrs, senior. "When I woke up Tuesday morning I assumed classes were still on since no message had been sent. That's twice now that it hasn't work so you can't really rely on it."

Cancellation decisions are made early in the morning and communicated to the Drury community by the University Communications office.

Bill Noblitt, executive director of university communications, says he normally then contacts Deeds to send a text alert, but simply forgot to make the call that particular morning. Safety and Security is the only office that has access to the alert system.

"We're working out all these kinks and are creating a tighter system for letting the campus know about closing in a more timely manner," said Noblitt.

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