On April 16 last year, Virginia Tech student Sung-Hui Cho killed 32 people. He committed suicide, ending what would be the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

One very interesting detail was Virginia Tech’s response to the shooting—students weren’t notified about the first shootings until almost two hours after they happened. The college received criticism from a number of angry parties, making it clear that schools need to devote more time to preparing for incidents of this nature.

Elon is doing its part to prevent another tragedy with its new E-Alert system, and it only takes a minute to sign up.

E-alert is a notification system that allows the university to send urgent information immediately to its students via cell phone. Once a student has registered, the university will be able to send them a text message at the first sign of an emergency.

Chris Fulkerson, assistant vice president for the Technology Department, is one of the people behind this system.

“After the Virginia Tech incident, the senior administrators wanted a comprehensive and effective method of communicating information to students, faculty and staff,” Fulkerson said.

E-Alert, powered by Omnilert, allows each subscriber to receive messages on up to two e-mail addresses and two phone numbers. Alerts can also be sent via Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a Web feed format used for constant updates of such things as news reports or emergency broadcasts. Students’ homepages, including “My Yahoo,” “My AOL” and “iGoogle” can receive E-Alert messages as well.

“I think E-Alert is a good idea because most students carry their phone on them at all times. It is the best way to make sure everyone is immediately informed about an emergency situation,” sophomore Emily LaBeaume said.

The E-Alert system will not be limited to the Internet and cell phones in the near future. Later this fall, a siren will be added on campus to alert people with a tone. The E-Alert message will then be converted into a spoken message. E-Alert will also be able to send messages to digital signs that are being installed in various buildings.

“I think the ability to reach people instantly where they are without people having to search for information is what makes this system so effective,” Fulkerson said. “Until E-Alert, students would have to check e-mail or E-Net to find emergency information.

E-Net and e-mail are still important forms of getting information to students, but E-Alert is an important part of Elon’s emergency warning system.”

The registry for this service can be found at http://org.elon.edu/e-alert. There is no charge to sign up and it literally takes a few minutes for a confirmation text message to be sent directly to your phone.

Reporter: John McMannus - 09/12/07