Hoping to make Ball State University a safer place, some school officials are urging the campus community to increase the less than 25 percent of people who have subscribed to the emergency text message alert system.
Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said Ball State reflects the national average of students and employees who signed up for the service at other schools, which is about 25 percent.
About 24 percent of students and 35 percent of faculty and staff have signed up to receive alerts, he said.
It's hard to have mass participation in anything, he said.
The two companies that provide the text messaging system to Ball State are National Messaging Solutions, based in Darien, Ill. and Mobivity, based in Princeton, N.J.
Mobivity co-founder Gary Laden said nine schools employ them for text message alert systems. The average subscription rate among those nine schools is 10 to 15 percent. He said that is a good amount because news travels quickly by word of mouth.
Subscription percentages are higher in schools near Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois University, he said.
Since Ball State adopted the system at the beginning of the Fall semester, 5,070 have people subscribed, Proudfoot said. In the five days following the incident at NIU on Feb. 14, 436 people registered for the service. By 2 p.m. Wednesday following the cancellation of night classes Tuesday, 281 people registered in response to the text alert sent to subscribers, he said.
Proudfoot said he credits the boosts to spoken word. He said word of mouth is the best way to encourage people to sign up for the system.
Feedback for the service has been mostly good, he said, and students and parents are glad to have it. The most frequent questions have been about how to sign up, he said.
"We're not sure where registrations will go for the rest of the semester," he said, "but our focus is to get as many [subscribers] as possible."
Junior physics major Ken Moorhead said he doesn't use the service and doesn't intend to because the university has many other means of contacting him and sending text messages during a time of crises would take too long.
Proudfoot said the goal time when sending messages is between five and seven minutes.
The system was tested last on Jan. 31. Every message was received in about six minutes, he said.
Laden said text alert systems are good because they can reach people "any place and anytime." Reaching people on phones could pose problems if reception is bad or if the phone is forgotten, he said, but it is the best way to reach the mass population. He said he is glad to see so many schools invest in the system and hopes it doesn't take another tragic incident for the rest to follow suit.
Gene Burton, director of public safety, said the text alert system makes Ball State's campus a safer environment.
"Anytime we can improve communication, especially during an emergency situation, is a huge plus," he said.
Freshman Lauren Pascoe said she doesn't think having a text alert system is necessary for Ball State.
"I feel like Ball State is safe as it is," she said. "I like feeling that I'm already safe, so I want it to stay that way."
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