The University’s Business Continuity Planning Committee recently introduced a new feature to its emergency preparedness plan: Connect-ED, a notification system to be used in the case of emergencies on campus. Connect-ED enables administrators to send out pressing campus-wide notices and instructions via telephone and e-mail.
Connect-ED was developed by The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) and is marketed towards institutions of higher learning.
According to the NTI website, “The Connect-ED service enables school administrators to record, schedule, send, and track personalized voice messages to tens of thousands of students, parents, and staff in minutes.”
On April 9, students received the first test call to their cellular phones, a recording from Dean of Student Services Mike Whaley that explained the new system.
“As part of Wesleyan’s emergency preparedness plan, we are implementing an electronic notification system to alert Wesleyan students, parents, faculty, and staff of serious campus-wide emergencies such as catastrophic weather, life-threatening fires, or a serious flu outbreak,” Whaley wrote in a previous all-campus e-mail.
The Business Continuity Planning Committee is led by Director of Physical Plant Clifford Ashton, and was formed to oversee systems that ensure the University’s functioning in the case of an emergency. The committee chose Connect-ED over similar systems because of its seamless integration with user data, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, on the E-Portfolio.
“If there is a red alert situation, total failure of infrastructure, how do we communicate?” said Associate Vice President for Information Technology Services (ITS) Ganesan Ravishanker, who also sits on the Business Continuity Planning Committee.
Formerly, the University handled emergency notification through the landline voicemail system, but as more and more students switch to cell phones, this method has become ineffective.
“As fewer and fewer students have land lines, a system like the one we are testing has become critical in terms of distributing information to members of the Wesleyan community,” Whaley said.
After students received Whaley’s test message on Monday, they received an e-mail with a link to their e-portfolios, asking for confirmation that they received the message.
“We strongly encourage students to tell us if they got the test message,” Ravishanker said. “[This is the] critical piece.”
“It is obviously important for this system as well as for normal day-to-day matters that students keep updated contact information in their e-portfolios,” Whaley said.
However, besides a test every September, the system will only be used for true emergencies, rather than everyday notifications. Planners hope that this will ensure that its messages are taken seriously.
Three members of University staff, from ITS, Public Safety, and University Communications, will act as commanders in the event of an emergency. They will have access to the Connect-ED system and will be able to send campus-wide messages from a computer or telephone.
Currently, only students are on the Connect-ED system, but starting in June the University will run a test message to parents, faculty, and staff.
Ravishanker estimated that, annually, Connect-ED will cost between $2.00 and $2.50 per person.
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