Northern Illinois University, Feb. 14, 2008, five dead, 20 wounded. Louisiana Tech College, Feb. 8, 2008, two dead. Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007, 32 people dead. Dawson College, Sept. 22, 2006, one dead, 19 wounded.
Getting emergency information to employees and students during a campus crisis has become increasingly critical. To that end, WSU installed a sophisticated, multilevel crisis communication system late last year. That system’s ability to deliver information quickly is primarily dependent upon the accuracy and amount of contact information that individuals enter into the WSU crisis communication system database.
To ensure maximum delivery power, WSU’s Emergency Management and Information Technology offices recently expanded the registration information that faculty, staff and students can provide. Now, individuals can enter their business, home and cell phone numbers, multiple e-mail addresses, text messaging.
To ensure maximum delivery power, WSU’s Emergency Management and Information Technology offices recently expanded the registration information that faculty, staff and students can provide. Now, individuals can enter their business, home and cell phone numbers, multiple e-mail addresses, text messaging.
To date, approximately 20,000 faculty, staff and students from Pullman have entered their emergency messaging contact information into the registry. Statewide, 3,000 others have input their information.
Here’s how the system works and why it’s to someone’s advantage to enter several alternative contact methods. When an emergency occurs, the system will work through the contact options a person has listed, requesting confirmation that the message has been received. If a person does not confirm receiving the message, the system will continue to attempt to make contact. Once a person confirms receiving an emergency message, the system ceases the process.
Because the crisis communication system and database have been expanded, the university urges all employees and students who have previously registered to review their contact information and make sure it is complete and up to date, or, if someone has not registered, to go to the site and input that information. The process is easy. Go online to WSU’s home page, www.wsu.edu, then click on the “myWSU” link at the top of the page. Once you’ve logged in, scroll to the bottom of the myWSU page and click on the “register” link under the beige colored “Emergency Notifications” title bar, and review or fill out the form.
“It’s all voluntary, and the database confidential, it’s not shared with any other departments,” said Chris Tapfer, WSU’s emergency management coordinator. “You can choose to not participate, or you can indicate only one option, like a single phone, but in the case of emergency we would suggest people consider putting down multiple alternatives.”
“All WSU campuses, research and extension offices throughout the State are a part of the crisis communication system. Each maintains its own contact database, but registration and updating of the database is done for all through myWSU,” said Tapfer. “So one update will take care of both systemwide and regional alerts.”
