IU-Notify sends warning by text, e-mail

Students awoke to text messages and e-mails early Saturday morning from IU’s emergency alert system warning them of stabbings that occurred on 17th Street just hours earlier.

The message was the first emergency use of the IU-Notify system, and it came after it was first tested at noon on Friday. The test consisted of phone calls, text messages, e-mails and emergency sirens, while the Saturday alert was text messages and e-mails said Kirk White, coordinator of the IU Critical Incident Communications Team.

White said while the tests went well and showed the capabilities of the system, the Saturday morning alert could have been better.

“Gauging the use (Saturday), the system went well, but we did not get the Web site updated fast enough,” White said, adding that the text messages told people to go to a Web site that wasn’t updated yet.

“We made a mistake, and we’re going to get it fixed,” White said. “If we’re going to point people to the Web site, we have to have information about the incident.”

White called the system a work in progress that still needs to be refined.

“Practice is the best way to make these systems work the way they’re supposed to work,” he said. “They’re multiple step processes with several moving pieces. You have to practice it to make it be the best.”

As IU-Notify moves forward, the most important aspect is expanding the text messaging database, White said.

Currently the system has 96,000 e-mail addresses, but only 6,700 students are signed up for text messages.

“The goal is to reach as many student, faculty and staff as possible as quickly as possible,” White said. “And we realize information needs to be out in a matter of minutes in some cases. And that’s our goal, and one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for text messages.”

Senior Erika Schlichter said she received a voicemail after the Friday test from IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger on her cell phone.

“It’s important to have something like that,” Schlichter said. “In a case of a real emergency, it would be really important.”

Schlicter does worry, though, about receiving unnecessary phone calls.

“I’m not sure how you determine what’s a state of emergency,” she said.

Senior Dave MacDonald echoed Schlicter’s concerns.

“It just seems like you would be getting a lot of texts,” he said. “Where would you draw the line?”

White said responses to the messages were mixed.

“Some were positive; others said they wished not to be bothered,” White said. “I think most people understand we need to be vigilant.”