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On Friday, students were subject to the whim of a carelessly administered VT Alert. A laughable dusting of snow threw the university into turmoil, and classes were canceled abruptly; 1:25 p.m. classes, and any classes scheduled to take place afterwards, were canceled at 1:10, a measly 15 minutes before classes were scheduled to start. Accompanying the confusion were cases of students who weren't notified for at least 10-15 minutes after the alert.
Faculty and staff were affected as well. The late alert led to misinformed canceled library tours for uniformed professors, TAs and graduate students, and professors who had nothing better to do than lecture to empty classrooms and posted them online for the sake of not falling behind.
Sure, who am I to complain about canceled classes? But the issue is not focused on the inconvenience of trekking to campus for a class ultimately not had. The center of this criticism is the mishandling of the alert, which, considering our history here, holds immeasurable influence over the studentry and university personnel. The poor administration of information for a circumstance as casual as inclement weather casts a dark shadow on a system that is intended to be crucial during legitimate emergencies.
This is not to say the system has been rendered useless by a singular event. VT Alerts have served their purpose extremely well in the past and will continue to play a large role in emergency information. But after the confusion regarding Friday's weather emergency, there is clearly room for refinement.
The system needs to be fine-tuned to reach all applicable populations as efficiently as possible. We cannot afford for alerts to reach our phones and email inboxes 10-15 minutes after we were intended to receive them. There also needs to be a more comprehensive look at how relevant information is consolidated for our needs. Bus schedules and their appropriate adjustments must be crystal clear, or at least alluded to in a separate alert. And in situations where the emergency isn't a matter of grave importance (i.e. an immediate safety threat on campus), it may be in the university's best interest to delay their actions until halfway through the upcoming schedule block. This will allow for officials to plan the best course of action and adequately pass on all relevant information to students and faculty.
With hindsight fixed upon the mishandled alert, emergencies in the future will be subject to a smidgen of doubt. Students have, and will continue to, respect the information sent through VT Alerts, but there cannot be another situation of late alert reception. Otherwise, the alerts are useless.
A version of this article appeared in the Jan 29 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Complaining about receiving a VT alert several minutes after the university was closed due to the weather. I'm sure the pre-emptive alert and subsquent cancellation during Sandy on Oct 29 2012 had nothing to do with it.
Here is an idea...
Instead of complaining about it on hear, internet message boards and Facebook/Twitter
Why don't you do something about?I'm sure there is a system or rather a emergencey plan in place. Ever thought about looking into Everbridge the company contracted with VT?
What about those in charge of emergency alerts and weather alerts such Office of Emergency Management Virginia Tech VP of Administrative Services etc. Also, there are surveys about VT alerts you can voice concerns. Yes, cert6ain events get priority and yes there is a chain of command.
While I agree and I get text messages and emails after the notice of inclement hazardous weather do I feel VT alerts will work in an absolute emergency? I am 99.9% sure VT Alert would work. See Aug 4, 2011 and Dec 8, 2011 it worked.
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Been written about before....
www . collegiatetimes . com/ stories / 20753 / classes-no-longer-cancelled-for-tech-tomorrow
www . collegiatetimes . com / stories / 16111 / vt-alerts-constantly-changing-growing
www . collegiatetimes . com / stories / 18949 / program-could-improve-vt-alerts-system
www . collegiatetimes . com / stories / 14290 / thursday-trial-to-test-alert-system
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Calling the alert confusing is more of a reflection on the author than the University. I'm not sure what is confusing about "University to close at 1:15 p.m. today." If you go to a store and the sign says "closed", is that confusing as well?
If the author has spent very much time in Blacksburg, he should know the weather patterns can change on a dime here. Originally, the weather was not suppose to move in until later in the afternoon. It became evident throughout the lunch hour the weather was moving in earlier than anticipated and VT made the best decision with the information they had. Please keep in mind that of the 3,000-4,000 faculty and staff on campus each day, at least a third (if not more) of them live outside Montgomery county. Believe it or not, the decision was not solely based on the students.
Is there room for improvement to the VT alert system? Absolutely. Do you come off at a spoiled, entitled, should have had information 30 minutes ago student? Without a doubt.
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"The system needs to be fine-tuned to reach all applicable populations as efficiently as possible. We cannot afford for alerts to reach our phones and email inboxes 10-15 minutes after we were intended to receive them."
That isn't a problem of VT or Everbridge. If you don't like the speed at which you receive a text alert, contact your cell provider and complain. If email is slow to reach you, yell at Yahoo or gobble at Google about the slowdown in passing on messages. When you do that, consider that the cell systems are presented all at once with a huge block of text messages that must be queued and broadcast in some semblance of order. If Verizon, USCellular, et al were to build their networks based on the peak traffic these alerts produce so you can get a message faster, you probably couldn't afford the service.
Agree that you sound like an entitled whiner who wants everything NOW!
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I think there's a group of people that just constantly refresh the CT so they can post some variation of "entitled whiner" in the comments of every opinion article. If you really can't counter the topic of an article, which in this case is presented in a fairly level-headed manner, with anything else, then please just turn off the computer and stop polluting the internet.
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