The Miami University Police Department (MUPD) is increasing efforts to sign up students for its emergency text messaging system, e2campus, as part of Safety Awareness Week.
Miami launched the program this summer in light of the April shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, according to Miami Chief of Police John McCandless.
McCandless and Assistant Director of University Communications Claire Wagner said enrollment in the new text message system stands at around 3,700 students, faculty and staff members.
"Enrollment is pretty good, but we could do better," McCandless said. "If we can get to 5,000 to 8,000, that'll statistically get us to where other universities are with their (emergency text messaging systems)."
Currently, schools such as Purdue University and Virginia Technical Institute also have emergency text messaging systems.
Wagner said that some students simply don't worry about campus emergencies.
"We wish (enrollment) was a lot higher but it's a voluntary system," Wagner said. "Some aren't worried about (a disaster)."
Senior P.J. Kelly has not signed up for the emergency text messages and doesn't feel that the alerts are necessary.
"The odds that there will be a shooter on campus during my tenure is (pretty slim)," he said, "(But) it's a step in the right direction and I think most should get (the warnings)."
With less than 20 percent of the campus signed up for e2campus, Wagner said the university is looking to spread the word about the emergency notification system.
She said the university has used messages on myMiami, the Miami Metros and e-mails to encourage students and staff to sign up, as well as sending memos to various departments to make more announcements.
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However Miami has yet to test the system, despite problems at other universities with similar systems.
IT Services Deputy Information Officer Debi Allison admitted she is not sure how to properly test the new system.
"(We're) struggling how to best test this," she said.
Allison said that IT Services is currently unsure how to best gauge the results from any testing that would occur, but are considering creating a Web site where students and faculty could go after receiving their warning.
Purdue University and Virginia Tech have both tested their emergency text messaging systems with mixed results. Purdue tested their system Sept. 24 and had about 5 percent of students not receive the warning. The test took about seven minutes to complete.
Virginia Tech's system combines text messages, voicemail, e-mail and instant messages. However, despite the four different mediums, 711 people reported that they did not receive the alert. The two tests needed 18 and 31 minutes respectively to finish sending the alerts according to the university, according to the Virginia Tech News.
"There's no right answer," Allison said. "All technology has weaknesses."
With numerous problems arising from test runs at Purdue and Virginia Tech, McCandless is waiting to see what comes of Miami's first test, the date of which is not planned yet.
"We'll see what happens," he said. "It's man-made; anything is possible."
McCandless did however express confidence in Miami's emergency text messaging system, regardless of the previous problems in Lafayette, Ind. and Blacksburg, Va.
"E2campus has a pretty good track record of getting the messages out," he said.
The systems offered at Purdue and Virginia Tech offer other ways to receive the warnings-such as voicemail, e-mail, and instant messages-but e2campus focuses on text messages.
In light of students not receiving the warnings at Purdue University and Virginia Tech, Allison and McCandless both said the warnings might depend on the cell phone providers, with some students not receiving adequate cell phone reception in Oxford.
With a finite number of characters available in a text message, Wagner said she has worked with the MUPD and IT Services to create practice messages.
Wagner said she has worked on weather, crime, environmental safety and urgent messages. The messages are all written in 120 characters or less and indicate what is happening and what to do in those situations.
The messages will not be used to send out crime alerts, but rather in cases of imminent danger or campus closing, Wagner said.
Students interested in signing up for e2campus can go to www.units.muohio.edu/psf/police/emergency textmessaging.
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