January 4, 2008
South Puget Sound Community College introducing new security alert options
Early in 2008, South Puget Sound Community College will begin employing two new ways of sending emergency and inclement weather alerts to members of its campus community.
The first feature, Reach Plus Alerts, which has already been installed on most of the college’s network computers, allows alerts to be sent to people who are at their workstations on campus. During an emergency, the college’s Security Office sends an alert that pops up on network computers and prevents individuals from doing anything else on the computers until they read and acknowledge the message. The alert tells people the nature of the emergency and what to do.
The second feature is e2 Campus, a free text messaging service that allows students and faculty and staff members to register their personal e-mail addresses and devices such as mobile phones and PDAs to receive alerts. This enables the college to reach people who are not yet on campus. Whenever the Security Office sends an alert, all the devices a person has registered receive it.
Reach Plus Alerts and e2 Campus add to the alert system the college began building with its group paging and Schoolreport.org announcements. Group paging sends messages through the college phone system, and Schoolreport.org lets people check online for campus closures.