Safety first

Well, it’s about time! After months of deliberation, IU has selected the Connect-ED communication service to provide a security notification system, known as IU-Notify, to inform students of campus security concerns. \nIn the event of an emergency situation like the shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech in the spring, students will promptly be notified by “voice messages to home, work and cell phones; text messages to cell phones, PDAs and other devices; written messages to e-mail accounts; and messages to teletypewriters and telecommunication devices (TTY/TDD) for the hearing impaired,” according to a press release. As far as safety concerns go, we think the University has done a superb job of looking out for us, and we feel all the more secure for it. However, there is one aspect of the notification service that makes us nervous, and that is its potential for overuse, and, consequently, abuse.\nIn the same press release, IU President Michael McRobbie hinted that the system could be used for more than just emergency communications and may expand to letting students know about “everything from weather delays to other administrative news.” While we think it is absolutely necessary to keep students informed when there is a tornado making its way down 10th Street, we’re not too sure we want our inboxes and voice mails cluttered up with IU-Notify spam telling us about impending drop-add deadlines. We can only imagine the potential for abuse. Just think how you would feel about getting one of the following text messages:\n“Dear student: Ur library books are overdue. WTF?”\n“OMG, Hoosiers – get xcited! Y not come out and support ur cream n crimson football team this weekend? CU there.”\n“Y don’t u pay ur Bursar bill? That would b gr8 kthxbye”\nThe news release also mentions that other schools have used similar systems to keep students informed about the admissions process and to keep them abreast of important financial aid or other administrative deadlines. But wait, don’t we already get enough unwanted crap through our IU e-mail accounts – both from the University itself and from student loan corporations and counterfeit Viagra purveyors? And once we have IU sending us that kind of information, it won’t be long before we start receiving text messages from the registrar’s office asking us what we’re up to this weekend and inviting us to come over to hang out with them. Are we seriously going to have to block IU’s calls? Are we honestly going to have to add it to our already lengthy spam lists?\nBy going beyond the bounds of communicating absolutely necessary information to the students, the University is edging toward a dangerous area. In fact, it stands in prime position to cross that hazy boundary between school and private life, sitting tenuously atop the fence between “Gee, I really appreciate your letting me know” and “Another message? Leave me the hell alone!” So we ask the University not to get text-happy, and to use the new system solely for its originally intended purposes.