McRobbie: Emergency alert system will be in place by end of calendar year

IU President Michael McRobbie announced Friday that all eight IU campuses will have an emergency alert system in place by the end of the year.\n“We will be able to send emergency alerts by text message, telephone and e-mail,” McRobbie said during his address to the IU board of trustees at their September meeting Friday. “This will provide a tool for alerting the IU community to anything from weather to other administrative news.”\nThe announcement comes after widespread criticism of administrators’ actions at Virginia Tech before and during the April 16 shootings that left 33 people dead. Critics said the Virginia Tech administration was slow to react and did not provide students, staff and faculty with adequate warning of an on-campus threat.\nIU students, staff and faculty will have the option to submit contact information like cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Administrators will be able to send alerts to individual campuses or to all eight at once.\nMcRobbie said he hopes to begin putting the system in place “very soon.”