Wilson College activates new emergency text messaging service

CHAMBERSBURG - Wilson College has added text messaging to its emergency alert system for notifying students, their families, faculty and staff during a crisis.

The text messages will be issued by the college to alert students, employees and others to an immediate threat and provide instructions for appropriate action, according to Cheryl Sleboda, Wilson vice president for finance and administration.

She said the system will only be used "in circumstances that pose an immediate and lifethreatening danger," such as a tornado, fire or hostile intruder.

"Obviously, the Virginia Tech incident is what has a lot of campuses looking at this," Sleboda said. "I think we're ahead of a lot of schools. Even though we're small, we need to be prepared."

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, Wilson officials researched the most effective ways of communicating in a crisis. Text messaging is one of the preferred methods for connecting with technology-savvy young people.

"Ninety-five percent of college students today use text messaging," Sleboda said. "That's why it's so popular for this type of communication."

In a life-threatening emergency, campus officials would use a number of ways to quickly communicate with students, faculty and staff, including sending text messages and all-campus emails, activating a telephone hotline and posting an announcement on the college web site. In addition, a bell in Edgar Hall would toll and designated Wilson employees would patrol the campus with bullhorns to communicate in emergency situations.

In addition to students and college employees, other interested parties - such as parents and alumnae - may sign up for the new text messaging system.

Wilson contracted with Delaware-based Advanced Telecom Inc. for the service in August. The college paid an initial set-up fee and will pay an annual fee, plus a per-call cost for the service, Sleboda said.

The college began testing the service in October and the system is now operational, according to Wilson

Director of Information Technology Luis Escobar. He said the college is still trying to iron out some minor glitches.

"Some cell phone vendors are not compatible with the service, but we will be working on that during the course of the year," Escobar said. "Text messaging has been around for a long time, but the formal use of text messaging for emergency notification of campus communities is actually a relatively untried method for institutional communications."

So far, approximately 180 people have signed up to receive text messages and the college expects many more to subscribe as word continues to spread. Users will have an opportunity to sign up or re-enroll at least once a year.

Text messaging is one component of a broader campus plan to respond to and deal with a variety of potential campus crises, including pandemic flu. Wilson updated its crisis response plan last summer and added a plan specifically for dealing with a hostile intruder. The plan can be found on Wilson's home page: www.wilson.edu.

In addition, the college requested regular patrols by the Chambersburg Police Department, which is also working with a campus emergency response committee to conduct a tactical demonstration and eventually, a full-blown drill that would involve a mock intruder/ hostage situation.

"We thought these demonstrations with the borough police would be helpful for awareness and training," Sleboda said.