Home > News > New Web site hopes to aid in emergencies
New Web site hopes to aid in emergencieswhat are other college towns in the state of Minnesota doing?
BY CARLY McLAIN
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
iISSUE: 78/26
UMD has launched a new Emergency Preparedness Web site, which gives detailed advice about what students, faculty and staff should do in case of an emergency. “The response has been really great,” Officer Rhonada Sclavi of the university police said. “About 40 percent of the university has signed up for the blast text messages.” However, when some students were asked, they had either never heard of it or hadn’t looked at it. Nevertheless, the site does offer helpful tips that can be used in an emergency or for personal safety.
Linda Deneen, the director of Information Technology Systems and Services (ITSS) at UMD, said that with all the concern about security, there was a need for a site that told people what to do if there was an emergency.
Deneen, along with other ITSS members, sought help around campus for accurate advice. The office of Environmental Health and Safety, Susan B. Latto, director of public relations at UMD and others were among some of the people who were talked to and asked to review the information to make sure that it was correct, according to Deneen. Sclavi said the university police were one on the groups that ITSS talked to for contact information. ITSS also used the U of M’s emergency Web site as a guideline for the UMD’s site. “We worked with folks from the Twins Cities campus and with their permission, used information from their site and slightly modified it to fit our campus,” said Deneen.
Deneen was surprised at how fast the site was up and running even with all the help that they had received.
“The creation happened pretty fast,” said Deenen. “Though pieces have been in place for sometime now, like the text messaging from last semester, we were asked [to create the site] on Feb. 21 and it went live on March 4.” With the help of old campus templates, Andy Manteuffel put the site together, but the organization [of the site] was a group effort, according to Deneen. So, while students might not have known that the site exists, it does offer helpful hints on what to do in an emergency and provides links to other security resources nationwide.
