2008 Woodie Awards
More than just e-mails: campus alerts soon to be text messages, sirens
Christy Mullins
Issue date: 8/29/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
When two armed men confronted a group of Winthrop students last week in the Sims parking lot, there wasn't much police could do with the contaminated scene seven hours later.
Three students reported late Monday afternoon, Aug. 20, that two men took a shotgun from the trunk of a green car nearby and forced cash and a gold neck chain from a male victim at around four that morning.
Had the students called campus police immediately, law enforcement would have been able to notify agencies about the car, bring out K-9 units and identify witnesses, Campus Police Chief Frank Zebedis said.
"We had no idea where these guys went," Zebedis said. "There are a lot of things we could've done if we had been contacted sooner."
Administrators are taking their own measures to make sure students are safe this semester. Freshmen were encouraged to add their cell phone numbers to a confidential database at orientation this summer, marking the beginning of a new alert system on campus.
After contracts are signed, the university will begin sending text messages and making phone calls to students when emergencies arise.
Winthrop is also working on a system that will use the Tillman bell to play a siren across campus to alert the community of critical incidents. For alertness indoors, panels will display emergency messages in select buildings, beginning with residence halls.
James Hammond, associate vice president for Information Technology, said many of these plans should gear up any day now. A number of institutions have already made these changes, he said, and upperclassmen and faculty will be getting an email soon encouraging them to sign up, too.
Students can sign up for cell phone notifications through Wingspan. The text messages may cost, depending on the cellular provider, but Hammond said the system will only be tested once per semester.
The victims in the Sims parking lot were re-interviewed last Tuesday for more details they may have remembered, and a follow-up investigation is in progress.
Three students reported late Monday afternoon, Aug. 20, that two men took a shotgun from the trunk of a green car nearby and forced cash and a gold neck chain from a male victim at around four that morning.
Had the students called campus police immediately, law enforcement would have been able to notify agencies about the car, bring out K-9 units and identify witnesses, Campus Police Chief Frank Zebedis said.
"We had no idea where these guys went," Zebedis said. "There are a lot of things we could've done if we had been contacted sooner."
Administrators are taking their own measures to make sure students are safe this semester. Freshmen were encouraged to add their cell phone numbers to a confidential database at orientation this summer, marking the beginning of a new alert system on campus.
After contracts are signed, the university will begin sending text messages and making phone calls to students when emergencies arise.
Winthrop is also working on a system that will use the Tillman bell to play a siren across campus to alert the community of critical incidents. For alertness indoors, panels will display emergency messages in select buildings, beginning with residence halls.
James Hammond, associate vice president for Information Technology, said many of these plans should gear up any day now. A number of institutions have already made these changes, he said, and upperclassmen and faculty will be getting an email soon encouraging them to sign up, too.
Students can sign up for cell phone notifications through Wingspan. The text messages may cost, depending on the cellular provider, but Hammond said the system will only be tested once per semester.
The victims in the Sims parking lot were re-interviewed last Tuesday for more details they may have remembered, and a follow-up investigation is in progress.
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