Last week, college students across the country were given a grim reminder of just how important emergency notification can be when Colton Tooley, a sophomore math major at the University of Texas-Austin shot himself with an AK-47 at UT’s Perry-Castañeda Library. While the bloodshed was limited to Tooley, other campus shootings — such as those at Virginia Tech — have been far more deadly.
The University of Denver’s emergency notification system allows campus safety officials to alert the campus community about a critical incident or emergency on campus. Emergency notifications messages are sent via voice, e-mail and text message.
DU campus safety officials report that about 40 percent of students, 51 percent of faculty and 40 percent of staff are signed up for the notices.
“The security of our people and campus is our top priority, and emergency notifications play a critical part in DU’s overall safety process. In the event of an emergency on or near campus, this is how the University would pass on possible life-saving information to members of the University community,” says Sgt. Stephen Banet of DU’s Office of Emergency Preparedness/Crime Prevention.
Every member of the DU campus community should sign up for emergency notifications, he says.
“From severe weather and power outages to criminal activity and fires, it is important people know what to do, where to go and how to get more information,” Banet says. “Emergency notifications will be the one source of accurate and official University information in a critical incident.”
To sign up for emergency notifications visit www.du.edu/emergency. Anyone in an emergency or life threatening situation should call 911 or contact Campus Safety at 1-2334 (on-campus), 303-871-2334 (off-campus) or by picking up any of the emergency security phones located throughout the campus.