University officials will send emergency information to cell phones of students, faculty, and staff.
Coppin State University (CSU) will boost campus safety with the activation of a new cell phone text alert system by e2Campus. CSU is using the new web-based service to instantly push urgent news and emergency information to the cell phones of students, faculty and staff via Short Message Service (SMS) text messages.
Chief Miriam Wood, CSU’s Campus Police Chief said, We have implemented an Emergency Messaging System via mobile text alerts. It is a convenient system for all Coppin State University staff, faculty and students as they can sign up for SMS alerts with the option to receive simultaneous e-mail notification.
Andrew Bain, Director of Web and Multimedia Development at CSU explains, Students may not be on a computer checking email or the Web when an emergency hits. They may not be in their dorm room either. And, students cant answer a phone call or check voicemail during class. To be able to send SMS text messages to students wherever they are, warning them of emergencies is a real break-through in student communication.
We completed a thorough analysis of notification products. e2Campus winning combination of price and ease of use was a no brainer. Once purchased, we had our account in a half hour and had it live by the end of the week. Every time we send an alert, more students sign up.
We initially purchased e2Campus for weather alerts, but now public safety is front and center. Later, we plan to use it in the marketing department for connecting with prospective students. Its an excellent service with a very supportive staff.
How It Works
When using e2Campus centralized interface, a CSU school official types a message, selects the groups to receive the message, and then presses a button to send it. Within seconds, the message is simultaneously sent to thousands of relevant people via the method each recipient chose to receive it, such as a mobile phone (SMS text message), personal or school email account, RSS feed, wireless PDA, relevant school web pages using the automatic Bulletin Board feature, or My Yahoo, AOL, or Personalized Google web page.
