UMB Alert: New Emergency Notification System for UMass Boston
Visit the UMass Boston Safety website at http://safety.umb.edu.
This month, UMass Boston unveils the new UMB Alert emergency notification system, which will be used to provide critical information to faculty, students, and staff when university officials perceive a significant threat to their safety. Public safety officials and university administrators will have the ability to send alerts in response to situations such as criminal acts, fires, explosions, chemical accidents, severe storms or any local incidents that are seen to pose a threat to the safety of the community.
In addition to text messaging, the university will use other message and information systems such as alarm systems, loud speakers, electronic messaging systems such as the lobby TVs, and WUMB radio as well as local media contacts.
“While the events of September 11 powerfully illustrated the need for effective communication in an emergency event, the tragedies at Virginia Tech, LSU, and NIU demonstrated this need all too clearly in a university setting,” said Public Safety Program Manager Richard Lee, who is also a certified National Incident Management Systems/Incident Command System trainer for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. Pointing to The Virginia Tech Report as well as the Governor’s Commission on Campus Public Safety from Florida and Wisconsin, Lee stated that fast, efficient emergency notification is key to campus safety efforts.
The UMB Alert system relies on technology from Dialogic Communications Corporation (DCC), a company contracted by the University of Massachusetts President’s Office to serve all five UMass campuses. Its clients include other large universities, including Harvard, Columbia, and Vanderbilt as well as other Massachusetts state institutions.
“This is not just an email system. It is a multi-tiered emergency notification system that uses email, text messaging and phone calls as one part of a larger emergency operational plan,” explained Chief Information Officer Anne Scrivener Agee, who is also co-chair of the university-wide Safety Planning Committee. “The concept is to contact all members of our university community to the best of our ability using a variety of means including email and text messaging.”
“The implementation of a system such as this as part of our overall Emergency Preparedness planning is a reflection of how seriously and aggressively we seek out the best options to maintain our community’s safety in these times of heightened awareness and concern,” said Administration and Finance Vice Chancellor Ellen O’Connor, committee co-chair.
Agee, who also chairs the Safety Awareness subcommittee, added that a major awareness effort later this month will help members of the university community better understand emergency preparedness and campus safety. Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Kelly Meehan and Assistant Dean of Students Joyce Morgan are spearheading this effort with the assistance of Richard Lee and student Michael Metzger.
“The implementation of an emergency notification system is another important tool in our efforts to maintain a safe and secure environment for our community,” said Morgan. “While it is regrettable we need such systems, we will do all that we can to use this new technology as part of our overall efforts to keep our students safe.”
Meehan explained that the rollout effort will include opportunities for those who have not yet signed up for the UMB Alert system to do so via laptops provided at tables in the University Terrace. Visitors to the system portal are given options to designate cell phone numbers, alternate email addresses, or text messaging numbers where they wish to be contacted in an emergency situation. Students who sign up at this time may be eligible to win one of a number of prizes.
“The publicity effort will spotlight not only the emergency notification system, but also the new safety Web site and other safety-related efforts underway,” said Meehan.
Led by the university-wide Safety Planning Committee, the systems includes the Web site, a revised emergency operations plan, continuity of operations plans, a new emergency response guide, special Incident Command training for key university employees, flu prevention efforts, and the introduction of special interventions for “distressed and distressing” individuals.
“The security and health of all our students, faculty, staff, visitors, and neighbors remain the single highest priority of this university,” said Chancellor Keith Motley, who last month praised the efforts of the University-Wide Safety Planning Committee.
“UMass Boston has always explored different methods of developing, implementing, and maintaining a safe and secure campus environment,” said Lee. “ The emergency notification system is just one part of a larger all-hazards plan of emergency preparedness designed to provide a multi-tiered level of protection using people, technology, and planning to maintain the safety of our campus.”
Lee added that safety is everyone’s business. “If an emergency message is ever broadcast, community members should notify people around them of the messages and the directions given. This is a community-wide effort in which everyone should accept the responsibility of helping their fellow community members. We all need to be part of the effort for it to be effective.”
Visit the UMass Boston Safety website at http://safety.umb.edu.