R.A.M. adds to campus safety
by Mariel Caņas, News Co-Editor
Recently, Cornell established the Rapid Alert Messaging (R.A.M.) Emergency System to assist in campus-wide notification of safety concerns. Mike Williamson, Director of Campus Safety, said, "Following the tragic events at Virginia Tech along with additional events across the nation, mass notification became a prominent issue." For over a year, a select group of Cornell administrators have been working on updating the college's Emergency Preparedness Plan. In that process, additional methods of communication in situations of emergency were determined necessary.
Cornell considered several safety systems to contribute to campus safety. Research by the Office of Information Technology, Office of Campus Safety and Karla Carney-Hall, Dean of Students, determined that the R.A.M. system, supplied by e2Campus, was the best option for Cornell. One of the reasons this system was selected was its ease of implementation and support. "Because the service itself is entirely housed off campus, there was no need to acquire or set up any additional hardware," Williamson said. A good deal of planning and testing took place to assure the system implementation would be as smooth as possible, and there were no reported problems setting the system in place. Williamson said, "The Office of Information Technology did a great job in getting everything in order."
Any current faculty, staff or student of Cornell may register with the R.A.M. system. "Overall we have had no difficulty with registering users, other than students losing their verification codes," Williamson said. Students can remedy this problem by logging into their R.A.M account and having the validation code resent to them. Students without cell phones will still receive notification through their Cornell email account, regardless of registration with the R.A.M. System. E2Campus (the provider for the R.A.M. Emergency System) enforces a zero spam policy, which clearly prohibits unsolicited messages and e2Campus does not sell the contact information of subscribers to third party marketers.
System registration is optional and students can opt out at anytime. Williamson said, "We are hopeful that students see this as an important way to share information quickly about emergencies." However, if they feel the messages are not meeting this goal, they can choose not to participate. "I believe that based on the criteria, messages will only be sent out when absolutely necessary. All students may not be immediately affected by the situation at hand, but the overall benefits of the system will out-weigh the minor charge incurred," Williamson said. Students will be automatically removed upon graduation.
When the college determines the need for mass notification and the messages are sent, those registered to receive the text messages can expect to receive them as quickly as they would any standard text message. Only a select few staff on campus have access to the system and the capabilities of sending out the messages. Protocol has been set to determine when and why to send out messages. Those incidents that pose an immediate and serious threat to the safety and the security of the campus will warrant alerts.
"Speed of communication in a crisis is important," Williamson said. Text messages provide one way to alert people immediately through a technology they tend to have readily available. Williamson said, "I believe this system, as with any opportunity to communicate safety and security concerns to the campus community, is extremely important and necessary." The messages sent out will be extremely short, indicating the warning and a short statement of what to do. For example, if the situation is a tornado warning, the message will read "Cornell Tornado Warning: Seek Shelter Immediately."
The hope for the system is that it will give the college one more efficient method of transmitting emergency concerns to the college community. Williamson said, "We know that students often check text messages before email, so our hope is that texting will provide an immediate alert." At this time, the system is expected to warn students of hazardous incidents (such as chemical spills or fires), severe weather (tornado warnings), and active shooters on campus. Students will also be informed of extremely unsafe travel and weather conditions which might result in closure of the college or unsafe return to campus after breaks.
If students encounter any emergency or dangerous situation, they can contact Campus Safety at x4299, or Mount Vernon Police Department at 9-911(from a campus phone). Once an emergency situation is reported, the college will determine the next steps in terms of communication.
Volume: 128
Issue: 4
Section: News
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