2008 Woodie Awards
Our View: Text-messaging service should be used properly
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Opinion
Just four and a half months after the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 students were killed, college administrators, faculty and students across the country are still understandably on edge. And consequently, universities are putting an increased emphasis on safety.
Which is exactly what was at the root of SRU's recent decision to introduce a new text-messaging system that will enable university officials to alert students of campus emergencies.
As part of the new system, which more than 1,000 students signed up for in the first 10 days of the academic year, recipients will get a text message if there's an imminent threat on or near campus.
The idea in itself, at this point, seems to be a good one, so long as it doesn't become cheapened, as have several other communication methods have.
Case in point: a widely distributed report of indecent exposure at Rocky's Grille last week, involving a leering, middle-aged man exposing himself to some diners. While this was certainly disturbing to those who saw and reported the incident, sending an e-mail to every person on campus and posting notices on doors didn't, at that point, keep anyone safer or help eliminate the mischief of one very rotten apple.
As students in the Information Age, we're inundated with information from anyone and everyone, from warnings about security risks to our computers to notices from the university about the parking regulations at the football stadium on certain days of the week, all of which make students drag the cursor over the delete button faster than you can say "Good News."
Rita Abent, SRU's executive director of public relations, said the university wants to make sure the text-message alerts don't become just another thing for students to disregard.
"If we sent something out (via text message) every single day that were minor alerts, people would get immune to them," said Abent, who also mentioned that since the introduction of the text-messaging service, a sort of tier system has developed, where some problems on campus may warrant a campus-wide e-mail, but not necessarily a text message. This was the case with the flasher, as a mass e-mail was sent to everyone on campus but did not go out via text message.
Certain events within the past year-last fall's threat by someone to shoot all black students on campus, February's severe snowstorm-would have caused the university to send out a text message, she said.
"That's why we have all these communication channels in our portfolio, to make sure we can keep as many students as safe as possible any way we can," Abent explained.
This new use of technology has all the makings of something that could become a highly effective means of communication between administrators and the campus community should a serious problem occur: It's easy to sign up for:, inexpensive, and accessible to anyone with a cell phone.
So long as it doesn't become just another forum for advertisements or another means to cry wolf any time anything unpleasant occurs, the university's latest step in enhancing campus safety appears to be a good one.
Which is exactly what was at the root of SRU's recent decision to introduce a new text-messaging system that will enable university officials to alert students of campus emergencies.
As part of the new system, which more than 1,000 students signed up for in the first 10 days of the academic year, recipients will get a text message if there's an imminent threat on or near campus.
The idea in itself, at this point, seems to be a good one, so long as it doesn't become cheapened, as have several other communication methods have.
Case in point: a widely distributed report of indecent exposure at Rocky's Grille last week, involving a leering, middle-aged man exposing himself to some diners. While this was certainly disturbing to those who saw and reported the incident, sending an e-mail to every person on campus and posting notices on doors didn't, at that point, keep anyone safer or help eliminate the mischief of one very rotten apple.
As students in the Information Age, we're inundated with information from anyone and everyone, from warnings about security risks to our computers to notices from the university about the parking regulations at the football stadium on certain days of the week, all of which make students drag the cursor over the delete button faster than you can say "Good News."
Rita Abent, SRU's executive director of public relations, said the university wants to make sure the text-message alerts don't become just another thing for students to disregard.
"If we sent something out (via text message) every single day that were minor alerts, people would get immune to them," said Abent, who also mentioned that since the introduction of the text-messaging service, a sort of tier system has developed, where some problems on campus may warrant a campus-wide e-mail, but not necessarily a text message. This was the case with the flasher, as a mass e-mail was sent to everyone on campus but did not go out via text message.
Certain events within the past year-last fall's threat by someone to shoot all black students on campus, February's severe snowstorm-would have caused the university to send out a text message, she said.
"That's why we have all these communication channels in our portfolio, to make sure we can keep as many students as safe as possible any way we can," Abent explained.
This new use of technology has all the makings of something that could become a highly effective means of communication between administrators and the campus community should a serious problem occur: It's easy to sign up for:, inexpensive, and accessible to anyone with a cell phone.
So long as it doesn't become just another forum for advertisements or another means to cry wolf any time anything unpleasant occurs, the university's latest step in enhancing campus safety appears to be a good one.
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