Austin, TX --[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION NEWS]-- August 6, 2007 – MessageOne today announced that Middlebury College administrators have selected MessageOne’s AlertFind to provide an automated emergency notification system that can be used to send simultaneous alerts to thousands of students, faculty and staff within minutes. Middlebury is planning to implement the system during the 2007-2008 academic year.
Emergency communications is a key challenge facing college and university leaders. Operating numerous buildings populated by hundreds of faculty, staff, and students makes running a college akin to overseeing a small town. Located in Vermont, Middlebury also operates the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad at 28 sites in 12 countries. With students, faculty and staff in Middlebury and spread around the world, it would be very difficult to deliver emergency instructions or account for college community members in the event of a crisis or disaster.
Once the new system is implemented, Middlebury will be able to rapidly and automatically communicate with faculty, staff and students in the event of any crisis or disaster. Administrators will no longer have to distribute critical messages manually through a broadcast e-mail or voice mail. When an incident occurs, Middlebury crisis managers will be able to quickly and automatically send important notifications to affected community members. As long as the recipient has access to a landline, text messaging device, cell phone or email, they can receive an emergency notification anywhere around the world. The system, which can differentiate between a real person and voice mail, is able to deliver a spoken electronic or recorded message and even ask questions such as “Are you okay?” in the event of a crisis. These responses will be available to crisis managers in real-time.
AlertFind will allow Middlebury administrators to make all users or a select group of users immediately aware of public safety warnings, provide up-to-date inclement weather advisories, or disseminate information on issues in foreign countries potentially affecting students or faculty abroad.
Dedicated System for Emergency Broadcasts Needed
Unlike free text message systems backed by advertising dollars, AlertFind is a dedicated, robust solution for text and voice-based emergency communication. Since the system is only used in emergencies, AlertFind prevents the “message fatigue” associated with ad-based systems where users may ignore important notifications, assuming they are spam.
“We want to be proactive in ensuring the safety of the college community and this system provides one step we can take towards that goal,” said Middlebury College Dean of Planning John Emerson, who is a co-chair of the college’s emergency planning steering committee.
