The many tragic events that have befallen various universities and schools in the past few years have raised the need for school administrators to notify students and staff of critical incidents in a timely manner. Since the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, many universities and colleges have increasingly turned to SMS as the basis for their emergency communications strategy. However, there are severe limitations to using SMS text messaging as an emergency system.

Drawbacks to relying on one medium

Focusing on just one or two notification methods, such as SMS messaging and phone calls, is not a reliable mass notification strategy. Current cellular networks do not have the capacity to handle and deliver the volume of SMS messages that need to be sent in order to reach an entire campus population in less than 10 minutes, which is the duration in which a message needs to be received to be most effective in an armed intruder scenario.

SMS messages are not guaranteed to be delivered within a time frame, nor even guaranteed to be delivered at all. Messages can be received out of order, which in a critical situation add confusion to which instructions to follow. Even worse, mass SMS can congest the network and interfere with calls to and from cellular phones, including 911 calls. Additionally the school is charged for each SMS, even those that are not delivered, and many SMS recipients are charged for incoming SMS as well, making SMS an expensive mass notification medium. SMS messages can also be spoofed, and the authenticity of the sender cannot be verified.

Taking a Broader Approach to Campus Notification

Instead of relying on SMS, school administrators need to take a broader approach to communicating in a campus environment. Campuses vary and administrators need to take the characteristics of their own campus into account. What works for an urban school may not work for campus spread out over a large area. But usually there is existing communications infrastructure can be used for mass notification.

PC Desktop Alert

Take, for example, networked computers. Schools typically have these across the campus in offices, class rooms, labs, and libraries. By running a small program on each computer that can receive important notifications, administrators can push important information directly to the PC. Messages take over the screen and cannot be dismissed until the recipient acknowledges receiving the message. For the most critical alerts, PCs can even be locked down, such that the mouse and keyboard are disabled, to enforce evacuation of an area. Message delivery speed is only limited by the network, so hundreds of PCs can be alerted in seconds, and there is no per-message cost.

Learn more about Desktop Alert

Campus wide paging

Traditional means of mass communication, such as using overhead speakers also help mitigate the drawbacks of personal cellular communications. Many deficiencies in analog paging systems have also been removed with new advances in migrating paging to IP networks. IP-based speakers are intelligent devices on the network that can report failure automatically, so maintenance is pre-emptive. IP speakers can be installed selectively to improve coverage of existing analog paging systems. Additionally, many campuses have deployed IP phone systems which often support paging as well. So the combined set of pageable devices can offer good coverage without additional infrastructure outlay.

School administrators have to consider which communications mediums will work best for their campus when planning their campus-wide notification strategy, and not to just rely on one medium. When it comes to choosing a notification system, ensure the system integrates notification to the various mediums from one single point of activation. Finally, evaluate existing communications systems to see if they can be leveraged for notification purposes.