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Emergency Text Messaging

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Getting the word out quickly and accurately

The University of Minnesota Duluth has established a new service to send text messages to cellular telephones in case of an emergency or weather-related campus closing. The system was tested on Tuesday, December 4, when school was closed at 4 p.m., due to a severe snowstorm.

"It worked great," said senior James Cook. "I was in class and a student passed her cell phone to the teacher. The message even told us when the last bus would run."

The entire country is becoming more security conscious and universities are no exception. Now, by using an emergency text message sent to students, faculty, and staff cellphones, the information can be sent in a matter of minutes. UMD is only one of the universities across the country taking a closer look at campus security.

The cellphone alerts are promising. They can reach students wherever they are, and they do it quickly. Early results from other campuses suggest that the emergency text message systems are one of the best methods of rapidly notifying a campus of an emergency.

The UMD technology involves voluntary participation. There will be a monthly test of the system and it will be used for emergency communications only.

Students can sign up today

UMD students, faculty and staff can sign up anytime. The following web site shows how people can receive emergency text messages.
<https://www.d.umn.edu/emergency_alert/>

There will be no charge from UMD for use of this system, although regular cellular phone vendor charges for text messages will apply. In addition to each text message sent, an email message with the same content is sent to UMD email accounts.

For more information, contact the ITSS Help Desk at helpdesk@d.umn.edu or 218-726-8847. Or see http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/security/text-alert.html

UMD home page editor, Cheryl Reitan, creitan@d.umn.edu
NEW RELEASES, UMD media contact, Susan Latto, slatto@d.umn.edu, 218-726-8830

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The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

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