Student, faculty, staff security procedures should be successful

College of Eastern Utah Information Technology department’s security procedures of notifying students, faculty and staff is similar to the one used at the University of Central Arkansas, when it notified students and faculty of a shooting Sunday night.
Two students were killed and another injured at a campus shooting in Little Rock, Ark. An automated system notified faculty and students through calls and e-mails shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sunday warning them of the shooting and urging them to stay inside behind locked doors.
The victims were shot in an alley between a dormitory and the Snow Fine Arts Center. One victim died on the sidewalk; police said the other two rushed into the dorm, where paramedics found them.
According to an article in the Associated Press, school spokesman Warwick Sabin said it was the first use of the university’s new emergency e-mail and phone call system, purchased last year after a gunman at Virginia Tech killed 32 people and himself.
Swindle said investigators would examine video captured by surveillance cameras, which also were installed after the Virginia Tech massacre.
Interim president of the 13,000-student population, Tom Courtway canceled classes Monday, but said they would resume Tuesday.
“Our campus is safe.” He thought police officers and the university’s emergency alert system performed well, but he promised to conduct a thorough examination of the shooting to ensure students’ safety. The university will review its security procedures, including access to campus, emergency notification systems and security cameras, reported an article on Google.com.
At CEU, Chief Information Officer Eric Mantz said the college has a similar system put into place to notify students, faculty and staff of a campus emergency.
“Our department will be assisting in maintaining the database of contacts, but we will not be administering the system. When a crisis happens, this tool will be used by the administration and law enforcement, not CEU information technology personnel.
“The system we are using for notification is Send Word Now — purchased through Broadblast as three-year contract that was given to all the colleges through an RFP by Salt Lake Community College. It is not housed or maintained by CEU. The CEU IT Department only assists providing/maintaining the data that is provided to the system. We are still in the process of getting data in it,” he said.
The system basically allows for up to 10 ways to contact individuals (five voice and five text/e-mail) in a mass communication style. In general most people will have only two or three ways of contact (voice and text/e-mail).
As a supplement, we do have another system in place at this time. A building paging system for all buildings that have IP telephones. If needed, an authorized a person can intercom into all IP telephones in a building and give instructions.