Longwood's Emergency Alert System: Student's Questions and Concers

Longwood’s emergency alert system, and the text message system in particular, has raised issues and questions with students across campus. The list of students with common problems is long.

Erin Brosnan, a junior, experienced one of the common problems with the system last Tuesday. Brosnan failed to get the text message alert concerning the drill even though one had been received on previous occasions.

“I understand it was just a drill, but it just got me to wondering if this would ever happen if there was a real occurrence.  I just like to know that I feel safe around campus and this alert system is supposed to do just that.” said Brosnan.

Not receiving the message is not the only problem experienced with the system. There are also delays.

“The main issue I have with the alert system is that for some reason I always receive the text 20 minutes after it is initially sent out,” said freshman Emily Morone.

When it’s not the text messaging portion of the system, the email portion of the system has caused its own share of problems for students.

Freshman Amanda Paris saw the test of the emergency alert system travel straight to her junk mail, which she didn’t even realize was a folder in her email provider until long after the test was over.

With all of these problems students are developing their own legitimate questions about different aspects of the emergency alert system.

Freshman John Cunningham brought up the issue of using an outside provider for the text message alert system. While Roam Secure is used by a number of universities around the state, according to Longwood Chief of Police Bob Beach, there are still problems with ensuring the school is getting their value from their money.

Other students are more concerned with the ability of the system to perform in all circumstances.

“I don't think text messaging is the most brilliant or effective way to go about alerting people,” said Morone. “Yes, it has its perks, but I'm sure not everyone on campus has signed up for this feature. How does the school plan to emergency alert those who are not text message enabled? This question I do not have an answer to, but I am sure it is a strong argument.”

Another issue brought up by Morone is how specific carriers deal with the text message alerts. Some carriers don’t allow text messages to be as long as others, and some carriers just perform better generally. Again, students highlight how these could prove to be problematic when communication is needed.

 “Think maybe along the lines of the many stories in various newspapers around the inauguration of President Obama.  The cell phone providers had to increase and supplement the infrastructure of Washington D.C. to handle the mass amounts of texts, picture messages and calls that were going to happen in a short period of time during that day,” said Cunningham.

Chief Beach would argue differently about possible communication problems. He believes that the students have an inherent responsibility to pass the message along to their peers in any way possible. Not only should the system be a source for alerting students, in Beach’s mind, but each student should also take it upon themselves to make sure everyone around them knows what should be done.

It is clear the problem is being exacerbated currently by the departure of Dan Dillon from the university. The system is only now just passing its first full year of service at Longwood, and while it will continue to have kinks to work out they would be much easier to deal with if one person was managing the system.

According to Chief Beach and The Director of User Support Services Kim Redford, the university is on its way to selecting Dillon’s replacement. That may be the biggest help of all the Longwood’s Emergency Alert System.