A problem IT can't fix: Getting students, faculty to sign up for campus alerts

Computerworld - Although many colleges and universities have been installing or updating their emergency notification systems for students, faculty and staffers since last April's shootings at Virginia Tech, technology can't fix one problem: Not everyone who's eligible for the emergency alerts wants them.

In a random check of five schools in the U.S., participation rates range from about 31% at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to about 50% at New York University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Boston College and Florida State University logged in with much higher participation rates -- about 68% and 85%, respectively.

After the Feb. 14 shootings at Northern Illinois University left five students dead and 18 others injured in DeKalb, Ill., the issue of emergency notification systems is again a focus on school campuses. Officials at the school could not be reached for comment or details about their own on-campus alert systems in the wake of last week's shootings. But school officials elsewhere detailed efforts to get students, faculty and staff members to add their names, cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses to notification systems now in place.

Participation has been a challenge, however.

"People know [shootings and other emergencies] happen, but they don't want to dwell on it," said Major Jim Russell, public information officer for the Florida State University (FSU) Police in Tallahassee. At FSU, rather than having students and faculty opt-in, the school automatically includes them in the FSU ALERT system, meaning they have to opt-out if they don't want to participate, Russell said. "That makes them stop and think about it."

About 39,420 students, faculty and staffers out of some 46,000 who are eligible are included in the FSU system. Emergency notifications are sent out at the school through text messages, e-mail, the school's Web site, an AM radio station and voice mail. Many of the school's emergency systems were installed in response to a rough hurricane season in 2005, with additional upgrades made after the Virginia Tech attacks.

David Burns, emergency manager at UCLA, said that although his school has been upgrading its emergency notification systems since the Virginia Tech shootings, little can be done about the low 31% participation rate in the BruinAlert system. By signing up for BruinAlert, recipients can get text messages on their cell phones and other handheld devices in the event of a campus emergency. All students with UCLA e-mail addresses -- the number ranges from 29,000 to 39,000 depending on the time of year -- automatically get e-mails during emergencies.

"There's nothing we can do to force them to join [the text message] system," Burns said. "All we can do is tell them that there's a critical need to be able to get such information. It's a catch-22; it's a public education problem. It's a problem emergency managers are trying to address nationally."