AU Alerts Students
Living on the beautiful plains of Auburn, it is difficult to imagine a tragedy occurring in our tight knit community. Despite our feelings of comfort and safety, it is pertinent that Auburn University and the surrounding areas be proactive in the planning of emergency situations. That is why Auburn University has established AU Alert, a system that will notify users via voice and text messaging if an emergency arises.
By going to www.auburn.edu/aualert, students and faculty of Auburn University can sign up for the free alert service in just seconds. Using your Auburn username and password to sign on, AU Alert fills in most of your information leaving space for additional cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. When you click “finish,� you are officially in the system.
“It is essential for students and faculty to enter all of their contact information into the AU Alert database. The more means we have to contact individuals, the better our odds are of spreading timely information and updates and keeping everyone safe,� said Christine Eick, executive director of AU’s Office of Risk Management and Safety.
Students, faculty and staff who do not take advantage of the emergency notification system will continue to receive e-mails containing urgent information, but are strongly urged to sign up for AU Alert. Compared to current systems such as weather sirens and e-mail messages, AU Alert delivers notifications at lightning speed. In times of crisis, it is harder to get to a computer than to your handheld cellular phone. The system is designed to send out thousands of messages in minutes.
“Notifying all students, faculty and staff immediately is crucial in emergency situations, such as a severe storm or campus closure,� said Eick.
The development of AU Alert could not have come sooner since the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Several students were shot and killed on their campus in April of this year when a crazed student opened fire with several weapons. Students trapped in their classrooms had difficulty reaching authorities because of lack of technology. Campus officials released an e-mail in the morning of the shooting before most of the murdering occurred, but few students got the e-mail in time. If Virginia Tech had established a cell phone alert system such as AU Alert, it is possible that fewer students would have been on campus that afternoon.
Hindsight is 20/20 and only time will tell if AU Alert is a useful system. While officials would prefer not to ever have to use the service, they are taking precautions in case of weather-related disasters or campus crises. The students and faculty of Auburn University are family and the college is taking all of the necessary precautions to make sure it stays that way.
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