Texting for safety
St. Michael's adds emergency text messaging system

Meghan McNamara | staff writer
mmcnamara2@smcvt.edu

The Rave alert messaging system will be the new mode of communicating to students in case of an emergency. Photo illustration by Alex McIntire

St. Michael’s College has recently adopted a new way of alerting students about campus emergencies. A text message alert system will soon be available for students, faculty and staff.

After the tragedy at Virginia Tech last April, St. Michael’s, like many other colleges around the country, realized that there needs to be a more efficient way of contacting the campus community in the event of an emergency.   The Rave alert text messaging network from Rave Wireless Inc. has become a new source of contact between students.

Alerting the proper device

Pete Soons, the director of safety and security says that a week after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, St. Michael’s started thinking about ways to alert students that are more efficient than e-mail or voicemail.

“We know that 40 percent of students use voicemail and we don’t really know how many use their e-mail,” says Andrew Day, telecommunications specialist at St. Michael’s . “These aren’t real-time things so we decided to go for a text messaging product.”

Day is in charge of the campus telephone, voicemail, cable television and satellite services. After the Virgina Tech campus crisis, the communications team decided to research a text messaging product that could benefit the college in an emergency situation. The crisis team came to Day to investigate different companies, Soons says.

Making the right choice

According to Day, after St. Michael’s conducted research, Rave Wireless Inc. was the company that stood out the most to administration, Day says.

“We went with Rave because of some of the other compelling products they offer,” Day says.

At the moment, St. Michael’s plans to use Rave strictly as an emergency alert system that will send out text messages and e-mails to all members in the system. In the future it may also be used for class cancellations, Day says. Security is also looking into some of the other safety products Rave offers for future use. 

A system that is being considered is Rave Guardian. This service is a cell phone plan that will allow students to activate a tracking system. If the tracking system is not shut off at the end of the night, a message will be sent to security allowing them to call the student to make sure they are okay.

Many students agree that the Rave alert program will be an effective way of keeping the St. Michael’s community safe and prepared in the case of an emergency.

“I definitely think it is a good idea,” sophomore Michelle Cormier says. “It makes people feel a little bit more secure knowing that there are people out there watching out. Text messaging is a really effective way of communicating relatively quickly.”

An emergency call box on St. Michael's campus is currently one of the quickest ways to alert security in case of an emergency. Alex McIntire, photo

Getting started

Although there have been no violent acts recorded on campus in recent history, Soons believes that having a way to quickly communicate with students in the event of an emergency is very important.

“There have been a lot of lessons learned from what happened at Virginia Tech,” Soons says.

The Rave system is not yet ready for use, however it should be active within the next week or two, Day says. Once the system is ready all students whose cell phone numbers are on record at St. Michael’s College will be added. Students may also sign up online.

Students will be directed to a Web site in the future where they can use their current St. Michael’s username and password to log onto the Rave system. Once students are logged on, they will be able to add e-mail addresses other than their St. Michael’s address, so that they may receive emergency notices there as well, Day says. Students will also have the ability to update their phone numbers whenever necessary. Faculty and staff may also sign up online for the service.

According to Soons, although all student cell phone numbers currently on record will be added immediately to the Rave system, Student Life has not yet decided if it will be mandatory for all students to sign up for Rave.