Tornado warning launches Connect-Ed texts

1,148
Connections made     

1,189
Voice messages left

2,365
Text messages delivered

98%
Percentage of users reached

     On Saturday, March 15, GCSU campus community members received an unusual text message.
     The Connect-Ed emergency notification system was activated for the first time at GCSU by Dave Groseclose, assistant vice president for Public Safety, administrative services and special projects, after the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Baldwin County.
     “From my perspective it went well,” Groseclose said. “It was the first official live (use) of the system. The statistics we got back from Connect-Ed indicated that a significant percentage of the people who were signed up for Connect-Ed did receive the message.”
     According to Connect-Ed, the system sent out 2,337 voice messages, 1,148 connections were made, while 1,189 voice messages were left. There were also 28 unsuccessful deliveries.
     Of the text messages sent, 2,365 were delivered: indicating that the system reached 98 percent of registered users.
     “It was the first time we’ve ever done it,” Groseclose said. “We had a couple complaints from people that the warning was issued at 6:45 and they didn’t get the message until 6:55, and that was my fault.”
     Groseclose said there was some confusion on his part, from a lack of familiarity with the system.
     “When I got to the screen I was trying to send a text message and it was trying to get me to send a voice message,” he said. “It turned out you had to go through the panel with the voice message to get to the text message, so I spent a couple minutes before deciding to do both.”
     Both voice and text messages will be sent in the future, if the system is activated.
     “I think we got a whole lot better coverage that way,” Groseclose said.
     Judy Bailey, the public relations specialist at University Communications, said that more people have enrolled in the program since it was used.
     “We put out another plea to students and the campus community to enroll in Connect-Ed,” Bailey said. “We are getting more towards the goal: of course, that is 100 percent.”
     Bailey said the school is currently working on a system that would automatically place students in the program when they enroll at GCSU. Current students would still have to enroll manually.
     Groseclose thinks response to the messages may have been different had the alert come during the week.
     “It happened on the weekend so a lot of people were able to ignore it, although many people did get it, because they were wherever home is,” Groseclose said.
      Erin Gorman, a junior business major, was one of those students who was at home.
     “I got the message, but I wasn’t here,” she said. “But I was glad to get it, for it to let me know what was going on. We were having bad weather where I was too.”
    In all, Groseclose and Bailey agreed that the first use of Connect-Ed went well. The decision to use the system was a good one, and those students who have not enrolled in the program need to.
     “We were happy with how it went,” Groseclose said, “I just wish there were more people signed up – I’d love to see every student signed up on campus and the (report to) come back and say that it was sent to 5,800 students and 5,800 students got it.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 4 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry