Emergency test changed in response to survey

By Kaleigh Maher, news editor
Posted on November 8, 2007

After an evaluation of the first test of the emergency notification system, a follow-up test was conducted on Sunday at 3 p.m. Madison Alert, the outdoor siren and PA system, blast e-mail messages and text/voice message notifications were tested.

Donna Harper, executive assistant to the president, said the second test was conducted to determine how effective the systems are, to see how much the public safety department needs to do to educate the community and to get people used to the sounds so they know how to respond to them in a real emergency.

University Spokesman Don Egle said the test involved three major changes based on observations and survey results from the first test. The volume on the siren and PA system were increased, the pause between the siren and voice instruction were lengthened and they made improvements in terms of confirming new registrations with the voice/text message system. Egle said the Department of Public Safety’s Web site added educational resources about the siren system as well.

“The test this past Sunday went very well,” Egle said.

Harper said the survey conducted after the first test of the emergency notification system revealed the primary reasons people are not registering for the alerts are because they don’t have cell phones or are concerned about how their number will be used. Harper said she hopes to better educate the latter that their numbers will only be used for the emergency alert and will not be given to anyone else.

“That won’t be the only way they’ll get the information,” she said. “There are still other ways people will get the word, but so many of our students are so savvy with their cell phones it could be the first way to get the information.”

A survey was e-mailed to the entire JMU community on Tuesday. Harper said officials want to know how effective the emergency alerts were as well as how timely so that they can continue to improve.

“Safety is a high priority,” Harper said. “We’re going to keep reviewing the systems.”

The survey must be completed by Tuesday.

Harper said that while the Emergency Response Team is still collecting data, they know some parts of the test went well because people were stationed throughout the campus.

“From most of our information it went well,” she said, adding that the ERT plans to continue tweaking the notification systems in some areas where the speakers echoed and the message will need to be slowed down. Harper said the content was still understandable.

Egle said there has been a steady increase in sign ups for the text/voice mail notifications. Currently, 8,079 people have signed up to receive an alert.

“We’re hoping to see improvement,” Harper said. “ — that more people got [the test message] than the first time.”