The word rave does not usually bring thoughts of safety to one’s mind when associated with college students, but university’s new alert system is sure to change that.

SIU is now the thousandth customer for the Rave Mobile Safety Alert System. This new alert system will send emergency messages to students and faculty through multiple avenues to ensure the notifications are seen.

Ben Newman, director of the Department of Public Safety at SIU, said he is enthused about the switch.

Advertisement

“It offers something we didn’t have before,” said Newman. “We are hoping Rave will offer more reliable service to our campus community.”

The emergency text message alerts will now be tied in with the emailing system. Prior to the switch, the mass emails and texts were each sent from a completely separate system. The new system will allow the university to notify the campus population through social media and the university webpages, as well as email and text, simultaneously. Notifications due to emergency, administrative closures and weather warnings can be sent from anywhere in the world.

“I can bring up the Rave mobile safety website, log on with my information and send out an emergency alert no matter where I am,” Newman said. “It doesn’t require a static IP or that I sit at a specific computer, I can do it from anywhere.”

This provides a solution for the university to communicate with the users even if something were to happen to facilities on campus. The system has been tested by the university and declared significantly reliable.

Assistant Provost and Chief Information Officer David Crain said they created a list of test users from staff members and tried different alerts through the system to ensure they are working correctly. He said at times, the old system could take nearly 15 minutes to get messages out to users while the new system does it almost instantaneously.

“The system is proven,” Newman said. “Other universities have been using it for years and what we hope to do is keep our campus community informed of major incidents.”

Jerry Richards, director of Enterprise Systems, said Rave is a well known industry leader in emergency notification systems and has a track record of being very successful.

Advertisement*

“The previous alert system had kinks and issues,” Richards said. “It was time to make the change to a better alternative.”

The final costs for Rave are still unknown. Crain said the expenses are significantly below the budget limit and the university may spend millions of dollars on technology at times, so this expense is considered extremely low.

“No matter what the initial cost is or the recurring fees are, it certainly gives you peace of mind knowing you can notify the campus community of an incident in a moment’s notice if need be,” Newman said.

Multiple departments on campus have been working together to get the system up and running. The DPS has worked with information technology groups and communications to launch the system. They all agree that only benefits can come from the switch.

“I don’t think there is any one thing that we can hang our hats on to do everything we need to keep campus safe,” Newman said. “I think it is part of a comprehensive approach and acts in concert with other components.”

Newman said the transfer to the new system has been quite an undertaking thus far. The university has had only three months to test, perfect and implement the system. Now, their job is to administer the news across campus so everyone will have their appropriate information updated before the upcoming semester.

Students are automatically enrolled into the system based off of their current information. To update or change information visit SalukiNet or contact SalukiTech.

“It is just a really good thing,” Richards said. “Potentially, a life can be saved with this system and that is all DPS is trying to do, just to be able to those communicate when there is a stressful event occurring on campus.”

Newman said he believes the benefits will unfold over time and this is the way to accomplish their goals of keeping the campus community informed of any major incidents.

For more information, visit dps.siu.edu, contact SalukiTech at 453- 5155 or [email protected].

Storey Mayer can be reached at [email protected] or 536-3311 ext. 254