As they return to campus or begin classes for the first time this fall, University of Colorado at Boulder students will be asked to sign up for a new wireless text-messaging service enabling the campus to notify them swiftly via mobile phone in case of a campus emergency.
In the post-Virginia Tech environment, which heightened concern about campuses聮 emergency notification systems, a CU-Boulder Task Force decided that quick text messaging via mobile phone would be a valuable addition to current communication systems which link to students in the event of an emergency.
聯The report of the task force emphasizes that in any major emergency, multiple forms of communication need to be used to inform the campus community quickly of the situation and what to do,聰 said Paul Tabolt, vice chancellor for administration. 聯Of the many ways we plan to communicate during an emergency, text messaging via cell phones emerged as one of the best ways to notify students about an emergency through short messages that may be periodically updated,聰 he said.
Adoption of the Short Message Service, or SMS, is one of several new or improved programs being introduced this fall to fine-tune CU-Boulder聮s emergency response and communication programs. The text-messaging service is being launched on Aug. 23 and students also will be asked to sign up beginning Aug. 23, said Brad Wiesley, spokesperson for the CU Police.
Faculty and staff members also will be able to sign up for the emergency text messaging.
聯We聮re asking students to submit their cell phone numbers to a campus-operated database, which will receive emergency messages should a major campus emergency occur,聰 Wiesley said.
A one-year contract to provide the service was approved with Rave Alert of New York for about $18,000. In addition to the base fee, the contract calls for CU-Boulder to pay 6 cents per completed text message.
Student mobile or cell phone numbers will be maintained in a secure database and will not be used for any purpose other than activation during a campus emergency, Wiesley said. CU-Boulder聮s contract with RAVE also does not allow the company to market other services to the cell phones of people in the CU-Boulder database.
The RAVE system will allow the CU-Boulder administration to send a short message of 132 characters or less to cell phones in the database with messages received within several minutes of the transmission, said Malinda Miller-Huey, director of Web Communications. The first message could then be updated through a series of follow-up messages and messages also would direct people to appropriate Web sites and TV and radio stations for additional information.
The RAVE system was tested by Web Communications staff members the week of Aug. 13 to make sure it would meet emergency specifications, Miller-Huey said.
Other emergency notification systems were studied by the task force, including improvement of CU-Boulder聮s public address siren system. The system is part of the city of Boulder聮s flood-warning system and is difficult to hear on many parts of campus. Improvements to that system, estimated to cost $150,000, may be implemented in cooperation with the city and county, during the next year.
CU-Boulder聮s network of indoor building PA systems also was found to be effective for notifying large numbers of people in an emergency. However, because only about 25 campus buildings have indoor PA systems, the task force recommended the systems be added to new buildings and the campus create a means of centralized control so the systems could be used in concert in case of a campuswide emergency.
Use of programmable digital signs in the lobbies of large campus buildings also was examined and will be studied further for possible use to display emergency messages. The digital signs currently are in use for academic purposes in the ATLAS building, the Wolf Law Building and the Leeds Business School聮s new Koelbel Building.
In addition to the work of the task force on emergency communications systems, campus staff and administrators updated the campus emergency INFO lines to (303) 492-INFO or 735-INFO, participated in an emergency tabletop exercise, a hazmat exercise, webinar conferences and other emergency preparation activities.
Students, faculty and staff with a colorado.edu e-mail address can sign up online through CUConnect at or by going to .