Echoes of VT in communication plans for LI colleges and universities

Long Island Business News, Aug 24, 2007 by Alison Snyder

Four months after the Virginia Tech massacre, with the fall semester looming, Long Island colleges and universities are implementing - or preparing to implement - improvements to their emergency communication systems.

After the April 16 tragedy, schools nationwide scrambled to review security and emergency notification plans, with many promising improvements before classes commenced this fall. It's not just about crazed gunmen, noted Gene Palma, vice president of the Long Island College and University Security Consortium, but student safety as a whole. Virginia Tech "highlighted the importance of timely, accurate and effective communications during any campus emergency," Palma said, and with the fall session set to begin, several Long Island schools are following up on those promises.

"For some time, we have been looking for opportunities to use blast text and voice messages in the event of an emergency," noted Palma, who is also Adelphi University's associate director for public safety and transportation. "The Virginia Tech incident put that on the fast track for us."

Adelphi had an improved emergency notification system, MediaOne's AlertFind service, installed and ready for the start of classes on Wednesday. Palma said it was the university's biggest priority this summer.

Hofstra University has also announced plans to enhance its emergency communications structure. The university signed a contract this week with an emergency alert systems provider, according to Robert Juckiewicz, Hofstra's vice president for information technology.

Other Island schools have been slower to adopt up-to-date technologies into their emergency response and communication plans, but the technologies are definitely in the pipeline. The only question is when they will finally surface.

Like Adelphi and Hofstra, State University of New York schools Suffolk Community College and Stony Brook University sat down and reviewed their emergency management plans in the wake of V-Tech. The SUNY schools then participated in a "tabletop exercise" with local law enforcement and emergency response representatives, according to Mary Lou Araneo, vice president for institutional advancement at SCC.

"It was one of the first times [the administration] actually had gone through such an effort to test what our plan contains," Araneo said, noting the college already has some technological methods of emergency communication - including e-mail and pop-up messages sent to campus computers - and is working on "phased implementation" of more immediate communications.

SCC is also planning to hook up to NY-ALERT, an emergency communication network created by state officials. The "all-hazards alert and notification Web-based portal" is customized to each connected institution, Araneo noted, and will also be available to individual persons. It went online June 1 and "hopefully we'll be able to say everything is up and running by spring semester," she said.

Gary Kaczmaraczyk, director of environmental health and safety at Stony Brook University, said the school is also preparing to implement the NY-ALERT system. "We're keeping our fingers crossed that the system will work fine," Kaczmaraczyk said. "We're hoping to get it rolled out in early fall."

The challenge will be getting students and staff to keep their contact information updated - or even getting them to sign them up.

Some schools are aggressively pushing the system and its potential benefits. "We have a massive campaign that's going to be going on from the moment students step onto campus," Palma said, adding Adelphi is also extolling NY-ALERT to faculty members.

Hofstra, meanwhile, is requiring students to provide updated and preferred contact information before registering for classes, according to Juckiewicz said. "I think prior to the Virginia Tech incident, it would have been difficult to get students to give us their personal cell phone and personal text messaging [information]," he said. "We've become sensitive to the need to be informed about emergencies."