Nov. 10, 2014
Kyle Guthrie
[email protected]
Students may start getting texts from an unknown number in the near future, but they can rule out the stalker possibility on this one.
Public Safety will be implementing a new emergency notification system in the spring in order to better notify students of hazards, dangers or other emergencies that may be occurring on or near the campus.
Tim Stoecklein, the program director for Emergency Management said that while Public Safety is satisfied with the current emergency notification system e2campus, they wanted to explore other options for a more efficient and flexible system.
“I wouldn’t say there was anything necessarily wrong with the other system,” Stoecklin said. “But we look for something that is more efficient and user friendly, and can also reach out to as many channels as possible.”
The e2campus system has been used since 2007.
“My understanding is that it was our first official emergency notification system,” he said. “It came on the heels of Virginia Tech when you started to see a lot of universities and campuses across the nation looking for ways to quickly notify the student body of information.”
In the spring, UCCS will transition from e2campus to Rave Mobile Safety as their emergency notification system. The system will include several new features.
The current program allows students to register two mobile numbers and two emails for emergency notifications from Public Safety.
RMS will allow students to register up to twelve points of contact to receive emergency information from the campus, allowing for a faster and easier dissemination of critical information.
Additionally, RMS will have a broader and more extensive category of voice call information, allowing students to receive emergency information through an automated voice call similar to a reverse 911 call.
Many campuses have been happy with the performance of the RMS system.
“The other campuses in the CU system have utilized Rave Mobile Safety for a few years now,” Stoeklin said, “and they have had really good luck with it. They are very happy with it according to my counterparts, so we made the decision to make the change over when our contract was up with our current system.”
Stoeklin also emphasized that the system will not spam students with useless information, but strictly information critical to student safety, including school closures due to dangerous road conditions.
“We are not going to send out a notification that is simply a guess,” he said. “It is a system that we only use when we need to let you know about a confirmed threat.”