A Complete and Comprehensive System Makeover for any Campus Emergency
Overview
Location: Fayetteville, North Carolina
Campus Type: Rural
Enrollment: Approx. 1,700
Faculty/Staff: Approx. 600
Campus Size: 617 acres
Number of buildings: 50
Higher education institutions face the daily mission of keeping students and faculty safe throughout the semester. While school administrators and safety officials take this responsibility seriously by having emergency preparedness plans in place, many recognize the need to improve their school’s current emergency communication system.
The administration at Methodist University, a small private school in Fayetteville, NC, recognized this need as they knew they had major issues providing effective emergency notifications. “Some of the challenges we faced with our system included dispersing timely notifications to the students,” said Janet Bird, Assistant Director of Public Safety for Methodist University.
Challenge
During an emergency, the school’s infrastructure often struggled to handle the high volume of outgoing mass notification emails and phone calls, leading to significant delays in delivery. Additionally, the air siren used for outdoor notification had limited range and could not relay audible emergency information and instructions.
“If the emails got bogged down and the phone message did not get through, the only thing people heard was a siren,” explained Bird. “There was no real way to notify students, faculty, and visitors of why the sirens were activated.”
The campus’ hilly terrain and layout also hampered emergency notification efforts. “Our campus is not just flat, which provided a challenge as we were trying to set up our outdoor speakers to provide the best coverage,” Bird added. “Also, the sporting venues and golf course are far from the main campus buildings.”
When a snowstorm hit the region and impacted the campus, it expedited the need to improve its emergency communication efforts. “It does not snow very often in this area, so it’s a big deal when it does,” Bird explained. During the storm, “We encountered the same problems of promptly notifying students of safety information.”
Bird knew Methodist would need an entirely new mass notification system to overcome these challenges. She began researching the Alertus® Emergency Notification System after hearing North Carolina State University implemented it on its campus. “Alertus seemed to have everything we needed to solve our notification issues,” she explained. “We removed the system we had before and went full force with Alertus.”
Solution
To build a new, comprehensive notification system from the ground up, Methodist deployed the Alertus Alert Beacon® (at least one in each campus building), Alertus Mobile Apps, Alertus Desktop™ Notification, digital signage override, a high power speaker array with text-to-speech, ThreatWatcher weather notification, and panic buttons with USB connectivity.
The Alertus Mobile App became the most popular system feature among students. “The mobile app has been amazing and well received by the students and their parents,” said Bird. “They’re college students, so they always have their phones on them.”
Methodist Public Safety has incorporated the mobile app training into freshman orientation to help increase personal notification coverage among the student body. “During orientation, we have the new students take out their phones to show them how to download the app,” said Bird. Methodist University encourages downloads by continuing education about the app’s features through email for returning students and staff who may not have the app. “We want everyone to download the app to their phone as I know it will be their new best friend,” she exclaimed.
With most of the emergency notification issues on campus addressed, the next step for Methodist is to improve emergency communication on the sports fields and the golf course by expanding the coverage of the new speakers. “You can hear the message on the new speakers, but it’s not completely audible [throughout the entire campus],” Bird explained. Methodist continues to build a robust mass notification system by adding more Alert Beacons and enhancing them with text-to-speech self-amplified speakers.
Conclusion
Fortunately, the school has not had to activate the system for an emergency, but Bird knows they are ready if the time comes. They test the Alertus System regularly and have incorporated it into their emergency training, including an active shooter simulation drill.
“During the simulation, the Alertus System gave us a timely warning and functioned flawlessly,” Bird said. “Every concern we had with the previous system has been addressed through the Alertus System. It has far surpassed our expectations.”