Over winter break, while checking my email, I noticed an addition to the Seton Hill University (SHU) website in the form of a little “A” at the top of the page next to the other icons at the top which read “J” for J-web, “C” for Campus Connect, and “E” for email. When I clicked on the “A”, I came to a page that had a link to sign up for an ‘alert system’ on campus.
I had heard whispers of this alert system last semester while I was doing interviews for another story. The Campus Alert System is a program that students, faculty and staff can sign up for, and when an emergency happens on campus, that system will send an ‘alert’ about it to your e-mail or cell phone. The service is provided by Omnilert, a company that provides instant alerts to your cell phone for schools, governments and corporations.
By Andrea Perkins,
Senior Staff Writer
Over winter break, while checking my email, I noticed an addition to the Seton Hill University (SHU) website in the form of a little “A” at the top of the page next to the other icons at the top which read “J” for J-web, “C” for Campus Connect, and “E” for email. When I clicked on the “A”, I came to a page that had a link to sign up for an ‘alert system’ on campus.
I had heard whispers of this alert system last semester while I was doing interviews for another story. The Campus Alert System is a program that students, faculty and staff can sign up for, and when an emergency happens on campus, that system will send an ‘alert’ about it to your e-mail or cell phone. The service is provided by Omnilert, a company that provides instant alerts to your cell phone for schools, governments and corporations.
I suppose the school decided to use the new system because of possible emergencies such as snow days, urgent on-campus news, and if anything like the tragedy at Virginia Tech happens again (God forbid).
I can imagine a number of different scenarios the system could be used for. Maybe it could be used when the power goes out at school, and the system could tell us what is going on. Personally, I think it is one of the best ideas the school has had. When I arrived back at school, I signed up. I was able to see the system in use two days before Valentine’s Day, when I woke up to one of the most wonderful text messages I had ever seen. It was a text from the school, saying that classes were cancelled at 3 pm because of snow.
That text message eliminates the crazy running around from office to office, frantic phone calls to the infamous “snow cancellation hotline” that’s stickered on every phone in the residence halls, and that white banner on top of the SHU website that reports the school cancellations.
Ironically, last year, on the same day, school was cancelled because of snow. I remember a big sign was posted outside the President’s office reporting the news. It seemed like everyone ran around asking everyone else if the rumors of school being canceled were true. When I got my text message, I celebrated by screaming at the top of my lungs and going back to bed.
This is something we can all do very easily to help ourselves, not just the school. Out of the many things that people can point out about SHU that could be fixed or changed, this alert system is one item that should be able to help us all if the time comes. And the great part is, instead of talking about what the school isn’t doing, now we can sign up to see what SHU is doing.