Colleges Increase Campus Safety with Mobile Alerts
This can be a scary time to be on a college campus. In the last 18 months alone, there have been 74 school shootings according to multiple media outlet reports. Other reports show 3% of college women have been a victim of sexual assault. This is of particular concern when you consider that most students are living away from home for the first time and are not even well-prepared for small emergencies, much less natural disasters or violent assaults. Fortunately, the technology of the modern age is helping to craft a safer, more connected college experience with many colleges and universities adopting text-based mobile alert systems for emergency notifications and campus safety programs.
Now, students no longer have to wait until they are back in their dorms to check their email in order to be notified of emergency situations. The advent of mobile phones has opened up a whole new world of lightning fast texting communication between campus officials and the student body. This immediate, direct connection allows officials and security staff to quickly respond to emergencies and instantly disseminate information by SMS, letting students know where to go and what to do to keep safe and to keep students updated on the status of the emergency.
These text messaging systems help enhance emergency response in a way that wasn’t possible before the ubiquity of cell phones. Some schools actually require their student body to be subscribed to these instant alert message services to ensure that no one is left out of campus-wide communication during an emergency. Others allow parents to subscribe and receive the alerts as well, allowing them to feel connected and be secure in the knowledge that their child’s safety is a top priority for campus administration. These safety alert systems are customizable and efficient, keeping thousands of people in the loop with just the click of a button, proving despite the seemingly high amount of negative events on college campuses we see in the news today, mobile technology is helping make it a great (and safer) time to be on a college campus!
