Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Rapid announcements across a campus - the Tragedy at VTU

The tragedy at Blacksburg is still being told, but one of the comments from the administration that bothers me the most is about the difficulty of getting information out across a large campus.  As a graduate of two very large land grant universities, I certainly understand the perception, but times have changed. Technology does exist and is already being used.  My son's school district has a service that in the event of a snow day/attack/early closing/… will send out a message to all parents via automated phone calls and emails.  And it's not just 1 email or one phone call in the immediate area adjacent to the school. It's multiple phones messages (both cell and land line) and multiple emails all across the metro area.  It's a great service and works really well.  Had such a service been used at VTU, perhaps some lives could have been saved.