If an emergency arises on Virginia Tech’s campus, thousands of students, faculty and staff will now receive individual messages about the situation with instructions on what to do.
Dorm phones will ring, cell phones will vibrate in pockets and blinking instant message windows will notify those who sign up a new system designed to spread information with immediacy to Tech’s 36,000 students and employees.
The system will go into effect Aug. 20, the first day of fall semester classes, as part of an umbrella concept known as VT Alerts. Along with the alert system, Tech will now restrict access to residence halls, and an interim director of emergency management has been appointed.
Students, faculty and staff may sign up for the new alert system beginning this Monday, July 2. The Tech community will receive an email explaining how to register, and Hokies may also enroll relatives or friends.
“The bottom line is every little bit will help in terms of reaching people. We recognize that people get information in a lot of different ways, so we want to get information out as quickly as possible,” said Mark Owczarski, director of news and information with University Relations.
The program allows the Tech community to list telephone numbers for calls or text messaging, as well as America Online, MSN and Yahoo messenger systems, in order of preference.
The university may need to use a single form of communication during a severe emergency, and may have more time to contact students by individual preference in lesser emergencies such as weather notices, depending on the situation.
After thoroughly considering 40 companies, Tech decided on National Notification Network, which provides notification systems to corporations, government agencies, schools and health care systems in more than 230 countries.
“We’re expanding what we’re doing, since there are so many different way to communicate with people we’re calling it VT Alerts,” Owczarski said. “For many, many years, we’ve used methods such as e-mail blast, the university home page, the weather line 6668 and local TV stations. We recently installed tornado warning systems that have siren capabilities with brief verbal messages. There’s a lot of different ways the university has communicated.”
In addition to VT Alerts, the university has announced other security changes that will be permanently in place.
Students must now use Hokie Passports to access their residence halls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Previously, key access was only required from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.
Tech appointed John Beach of Salem, Va. as interim director of emergency management, and will serve as an anchor for all emergency operations and training for the university. Beach will coordinate the planning, development and implementation of emergency response activities.
“The naming of John Beach to interim director of emergency management allows us to fill the position with a very qualified and capable candidate. Beach has been a fine leader in the physical plant, and also has extensive experience working with emergency response teams,” Owczarski said.
In another restructuring effort, the Tech police department must now report directly to Tech’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, currently held by James Hyatt, rather than the vice president for administrative services.
Many security changes are not new ideas. The director of emergency management position was created with the 2006-2007 budget adopted in July 2006. Additionally, Tech began reviewing alert systems long before the April 16 shootings.
Tech announced these changes in news releases this past week, and in a June 9 presentation to freshman and transfer orientation leaders on how to answer difficult questions posed by incoming freshman and their parents.
According to University Relations, a complete list of security changes will be announced at the end of the summer.
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 Tech students need to use their Hokie Passports to get into residence halls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. -Kyle Swanson/SPPS |
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