Brooke Kelly
Managing Editor
Approximately 90 percent of the student population at Jackson State University has not signed up for the emergency alert system.
Though the school started using a campus wide emergency alert system in 2009, currently less than 10 percent of students are signed up to receive emergency alert notifications.
Curtis Johnson is director of Support Services and Emergency Management at JSU, and for the remainder of the school year, he and the emergency response team will make efforts to get more students signed up.
The alert system informs students, staff and faculty when the university is closed due to weather conditions, and also alerts them if precautionary measures need to be taken when incidents happen that threaten public safety.
As of three weeks ago, 20 to 25 percent of faculty members are registered on the system said Johnson, including President Carolyn Meyers.
“Oftentimes persons get upset when an incident occurs on the campus, and they say ‘I wasn’t informed,’ but the university says ‘I will inform you through these measures,’” said Johnson.
“Our students sometimes do not value their safety until something happens,” he continued.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Tuesday of this week, a man was shot by campus police after the man “pulled a firearm out of his backpack and displayed it in a threatening manner,” according to the University of California police chief, Mitch Celaya, in a press conference. A female staff member saw the gun while on an elevator with the suspect at the school’s College of Business. She told her boss and after seeing the suspect in a computer lab, they called police.
“Within three minutes they had made students aware of the shooting,” said Johnson of the incident.
Johnson said there is no reason for students not to sign up for the free alerts. “We don’t sale your information. We don’t pass it out to a third party. We don’t send you commercials,” said Johnson.
Senior history major, Alicia Kellum, from Greenville, Miss. is signed up for the emergency response.
“At my last school we had one. It’s convenient. It’s pretty cool to me,” said Kellum formerly attended Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss.
Kellum said she believes emergency alerts are especially useful for off campus students when school is cancelled. Making sign up possible on the university’s new mobile app is one way Kellum suggests getting more students signed up.
While Kellum is one student signed up for emergency alerts, she does not represent the majority of students.
Jelesia Thompson is a senior communicative disorders major from Jackson, and she did not know about the call and text messaging options available through the emergency response system. After learning about the various emergency alert options, Thompson said she plans to register.
“I think it’s a useful tool in case an emergency happens on campus.” More advertising is what Thompson said the emergency response system needs.
In the past, Johnson said the Office of Support Services sent email blasts and ran advertisements in The Blue & White Flash in an effort to inform students about the alert system. After being gone from the university for a year, Johnson said he is working with others at the university to inform students and faculty of the system.
“There has been some reorganization on campus, and so I’m trying to find out who’s who and who does what to get it out,” said Johnson.
In the past, some faculty members have complained about the system’s repeated calls alerting the same message. Johnson said in the past people operating the system did not realize they were instructing the system to repeatedly alert those signed up, but he has rewritten some processes, stopping the repeated calls.
When students and staff sign up for the emergency alert system, they have the option of selecting their first through third contact preferences, between calls, texts, and emails for standard contact and emergency contact. The standard contact sequence is used to alert students and staff of incidents such as class cancellations due to future weather conditions, and the emergency contact sequence will alert those registered when immediate response to potential danger should be taken. The system is set up to try to contact individuals through the first method, and then second and third method, sequentially if the university cannot reach a person through a previous method.
Next semester, Johnson, who currently meets with various university officials about safety measures, said he and campus police plan to do safety and training in the dormitories to further inform students of ways to better respond to weather emergencies.
“[During a weather emergency], the first floor is not always the best place to be,” said Johnson. Hallways and places away from windows are oftentimes the safest places to go, and sometimes these places may not be on the first floor.
To sign up for call, text message, and/or email emergency alerts, call the Office of Support Services at 601-979-1597 to obtain an authorization code. After you receive an authorization code, register for alerts by logging on to everbridge.net and clicking on “new member registration.” Click no when asked are you an existing member and follow the instructions provided.
Registering for the emergency alert system is really simple said Johnson, but students and staff members can call him for assistance at the above number or email him at curtis.c.johnson@jsums.edu.
