The University will be testing UO Alert!, its new emergency text message alert system, today at 4:00 p.m. to evaluate the system’s effectiveness.
Since the beginning of fall term, students, faculty and staff have been prompted to register their cell phone numbers in the system, which will send notifications about emergency situations on campus via text message to those registered. The program is strictly opt-in, meaning students need to provide the University with the necessary information to put into the system, said Andre LeDuc, the University’s director of emergency management.
LeDuc said he hopes the test, which will also activate the UO alert feature on the homepage, provides valuable information about how long the system will take to send out all of the text messages. Another goal of the test, LeDuc said, is to identify how many messages do not get delivered.
“We want to see how fast it delivers the messages through the system and what’s the failure rate,” LeDuc said.
The University hopes to also run all-system emergency tests including text message and e-mail alerts and classroom notifications beginning next fall. Although the phone numbers that will receive today’s test text message have already been set, LeDuc is still strongly encouraging students to register their numbers in the system.
So far, LeDuc said the University has been successful in registering phone numbers, with more than 17,300 currently in the system.
“Nationally, it’s hard to break the 25 to 35 percent mark,” LeDuc said. “We broke 50 percent of students, staff and faculty registered.”
University sophomore Ashley Lufkin has registered her phone number through DuckWeb, and said she thinks the system is “genius.”
However, not all students are as enthusiastic. Junior Jonah Seitz thinks the text alert system is a good idea because of the prevalence of texting among University students. However, he has not registered his number because he said he thinks campus is a fairly safe place.
Students who don’t have text messaging included in their cell phone plans won’t have to worry as long as their phone is SMS message compatible.
LeDuc also emphasized that the text message alert system will only be used out of absolute necessity and that policies clearly define the system will only be used for life-threatening situations. He cited examples of situations such as an active shooter, a bomb threat, fire on campus, or a significant chemical spill.
LeDuc said the system will not be used for something such as inclement weather that has already been foreseen.