UMaine practices safe text
Messaging system will keep students aware of saftey alerts
Jennifer Vincent
Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: News
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On the heels of the Virginia Tech shooting last April, colleges and universities across the country are taking steps to improve security on their campuses and the University of Maine is no exception.
"We carefully considered our campus, our campus community, and the needs of this community," said Dean of Students Dr. Robert Dana. With that in mind, public safety and communication officials have established a new multi-dimensional approach to security and emergency notification this semester. Its cornerstone is a web alert system, referred to as the UMaine.txt program.
This new messaging system is from the national web-based campus services provider e2campus.com. The system will alert students of emergencies on campus or class cancellations due to severe weather. The system can deliver messages to registered e-mail address, cell phones, PDAs, pagers, RSS readers and Google, AOL or Yahoo home pages. Students and campus employees can register up to two phones on the Public Safety page of the University website and select which types of notifications they would like to receive.
In the case of an emergency, a newly installed siren atop the Class of 1944 Hall will sound, alerting students and faculty across campus to seek further information and instructions. At this point, UMaine.txt subscribers would be able to check their cell phones for emergency information in the form of a text message. All others would be encouraged to log on to the spotlight section of www.umaine.edu, check the Announcements and Alerts folder on First-class or call 581-INFO for instructions.
Students should understand that this is a free service and one that UMaine safety officials highly recommend taking advantage of. Director of University Relations, Joe Carr, emphasizes that "It will create a multi-faceted way to communicate accurate information and advice about how every person in the UMaine community can stay safe."
The number of subscribers is increasing every day, reaching over 2,200 students and faculty as of September 7. This trend is expected to continue, due in part to the convenience of cell phones. As Amy Leader, an undecided second year student, said, "It's easier to reach everyone this way because everyone has cell phones."
"We carefully considered our campus, our campus community, and the needs of this community," said Dean of Students Dr. Robert Dana. With that in mind, public safety and communication officials have established a new multi-dimensional approach to security and emergency notification this semester. Its cornerstone is a web alert system, referred to as the UMaine.txt program.
This new messaging system is from the national web-based campus services provider e2campus.com. The system will alert students of emergencies on campus or class cancellations due to severe weather. The system can deliver messages to registered e-mail address, cell phones, PDAs, pagers, RSS readers and Google, AOL or Yahoo home pages. Students and campus employees can register up to two phones on the Public Safety page of the University website and select which types of notifications they would like to receive.
In the case of an emergency, a newly installed siren atop the Class of 1944 Hall will sound, alerting students and faculty across campus to seek further information and instructions. At this point, UMaine.txt subscribers would be able to check their cell phones for emergency information in the form of a text message. All others would be encouraged to log on to the spotlight section of www.umaine.edu, check the Announcements and Alerts folder on First-class or call 581-INFO for instructions.
Students should understand that this is a free service and one that UMaine safety officials highly recommend taking advantage of. Director of University Relations, Joe Carr, emphasizes that "It will create a multi-faceted way to communicate accurate information and advice about how every person in the UMaine community can stay safe."
The number of subscribers is increasing every day, reaching over 2,200 students and faculty as of September 7. This trend is expected to continue, due in part to the convenience of cell phones. As Amy Leader, an undecided second year student, said, "It's easier to reach everyone this way because everyone has cell phones."
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