By Brian Bohl

The University is overhauling the way it transmits emergency messages to the student body, faculty and staff in response to the Virginia Tech shootings, according to University officials.

As part of the new program, the University is creating a Campus Alert Notification Network (CANN) that informs members of potential crises by automated cell phone calls, emails, text messages and television broadcasts. Melissa Connolly, the vice president of University Relations, said the new system makes it easier to disseminate information about potential dangers to a campus that encompasses 113 buildings and 240 acres.

“We’ve always done four or five things to alert the campus in case of an emergency, but…Virginia Tech [showed] that you need a multi-channel approach to doing that,” Connolly said. “We wanted to ensure that every single member of the Hofstra community received a message in a timely way.”

Those communication media are being tailored to individual preferences. Last week, the school sent an e-mail urging registration to the program on the Hofstra portal. Students can list up to four phone numbers, along with a number to receive text messages. Swiftreach Networks, an off-campus service, will be responsible for dialing the numbers, which go by the listed priority order.

In addition to news transmitting to via phones and PDAs, the University is also spending over $750,000 in hardware costs, according to a University statement. The Plant Department is in the final stages of completing installation of over 100 LCD televisions that can deliver messages over the Hofcast Network, operating under a similar principle as the Emergency Alert System on regular broadcast networks. That price tag does not include labor expenses since University-employed personnel are completing the work.

“The Plant Department’s installing all the LCDs. It’s almost impossible to estimate what it would cost if we outsourced the whole thing. It’s a minimal cost since our own people are doing all the labor. The cost is literally just the hardware and the text messaging service,” Connolly said.

The LCDs are expected to be installed in all the academic buildings during the fall semester. The TVs will be placed in all residence by 2008, according to projections from the University. Connolly said the residence halls receive secondary priority because security officials are already stationed at the entrances.

“Today’s students have many choices about how they receive information, and use cell phones, emergency in the most rapid and useful way possible.”

The CANN plan also necessitates a director of Emergency Management. Until someone is hired for the newly created position, the interim duties are being shared among a crises management team consisting of Connolly, Juckewicz, Ed Bracht, the director of Public Safety and Sandra Johnson, the vice president of Student Affairs.

The communication aspect of the program is just one part of emergency preparation. The committee is evaluating procedural contingencies before the lawyers representing the University help appoint the inaugural director, a move expected to take place before 2008.

“It’s mostly systems we’ve had in place. It’s just coordinating now,” Connolly said. “There is some training. We run the network.

“In case of emergencies, we’ve made very specific instructions so that the person at public safety-if it happens at three in the morning when we’re not here-can do it. We’re setting them up so our response can be very quick.”

Some students said they appreciated the effort to provide information about real or potential threats. Matt Berman, a senior marketing major who works as a student aide under Connolly, said being able to access the school’s website, watch a television broadcast or receive a message on a phone ensures there is almost no way to miss an important message.

“With the money Hofstra’s invested in the new security system, it does make me feel a lot safer,” said Berman. “It gives me a greater piece of mind. Something can always go wrong, but the measures that Hofstra’s taken in order to ensure our safety is pretty much the highest you can get.”

While a school may provide the warnings, it is still up to the individuals whether they will adhere to cautions and red flags. Berman, said some students may not respond to warnings with proper discretion, adding that they do so at their own peril.

“Nobody would have ever expected a mass shooting on a college campus, but it happened,” Berman said. “I think that opened a lot of eyes. People have to realize that it can happen anywhere, and we have to take these things more seriously.”

Registered students will receive alerts to their cell phones in the case of an emergency on campus. (Jacqueline Hlavenka/The Chronicle)