Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News

The notification system was tested last spring as part of an emergency drill in Draper Hall. [Click to enlarge]

[Click to enlarge]

The Folsom Dam breaches in the middle of the night and the Sacramento State campus begins to flood. Students could wake up to a text message from Sac State's emergency response team, but only if they sign up for the new notification system.

Larry Gilbert, vice president of Information, Resources and Technology Department, said this would be a good example of an event that would prompt a mass text message in order to prevent large amounts of students from arriving on campus.

The priority is to alert first responders through as many communication channels as possible, rather than an immediate text message to everyone. The first responders then decide which communication channels are needed and use them. Gilbert said this is done because mass texting can overwhelm campus systems and impede contact between emergency officials.

Campus officials say the system, developed in the aftermath of the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, is finished and fully operational. They conducted an active shooter drill in Draper Hall last spring and ran an additional drill over the summer in which three campus buildings were evacuated and the system was used to notify first responders, a combination of emergency services and telecommunications staff. They have also designated building coordinators and floor marshals for campus structures and required those people to attend emergency training sessions.

As of Sept. 22, 5,102 people had signed up to receive the text messages, including 3,921 students, or about 14 percent of the student body, said Greg Porter, director of networking and telecommunications.

Gilbert said that while the percentage of students participating may seem low, he was satisfied with the figures. He said that Virginia Tech introduced a mass text messaging system soon after the shooting on its campus, but even there, less than a third of its student body signed up.

The project was designed in phases, with the first being the installation of the software and the second being the text messaging and e-mail system.

The system was able to accept phone numbers and send text messages last April, but because it was near the end of the school year, officials did not actively advertise it.

That is changing this fall, though. Business cards have been distributed around campus, including at the checkout line at the Hornet Bookstore, and an e-mail to all students and staff from President Alexander Gonzalez went out last week encouraging participation in the system.

Sac State uses a program produced by Mutare Software. This is the same system that was installed at the U.S. Senate after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Campus officials purchased the program and required hardware for $50,000. Since the program uses e-mail to send the text messages, it costs the school nothing each time the system is used.

Some colleges use hosted systems in which they pay companies to send messages for them, which increases in cost based on use. On a large campus like Sac State, Gilbert said, paying per message would become expensive.

While the text messaging requires students to opt-in, the system also has other measures in place. Through the same program, officials can send messages to all SacLink e-mail accounts and can target campus buildings by calling all classroom phones in the building at the same time and transmitting a pre-recorded phone message.

Gilbert is also working with Associated Students, Inc. to have the capability to broadcast emergency messages on new digital signs that the organization plans to put on campus.

Porter and Gilbert said that they have no specific goal for the size of the system's subscriber base, but encourage as many people to sign up as possible.

"We're in really good shape in terms of getting emergency messaging up on campus," Gilbert said. "We have a very robust system; it's been fully tested and it works."

Justin Schulz, senior business finance major, said he might sign up to receive text messages, but was not worried about school shootings or other emergencies.

"I think (it would) be a valuable system if there ever is a situation, but I don't think that it would ever happen," he said. "It could, but it doesn't concern me."

Students and faculty can sign up for emergency text messages by going to csus.edu/ens.

Sam Pearson can be reached at spearson@statehornet.com

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