The Campus Alert Notification Network (CANN) was designed to provide students vital information in case of an emergency.

What are the requirements of an emergency? Last Friday around 7 a.m., students received a phone call, a text message and an e-mail reporting that due to the snow, classes were canceled and administrative offices were closed. This is essential information-especially for commuters and faculty, a good use for the new system.

However, last semester and again just earlier this week, a piece of paper from the Department of Public Safety was slipped under dorm doors across campus. Dated Monday, Feb. 25, this report stated that on Friday, Feb. 22, at 10 p.m. “four unknown males assaulted a male H.U. student.” This attack occurred shortly after the student left a “local establishment.”

Many students were not even aware of this incident, having not stopped by their room or because a roommate discarded the paper. It seems that this type of report is another notification that should be sent through CANN to students. If Public Safety wants the students to be aware of this, they should realize that this is not the best way to send a message.

Most University students are attached to their cell phones or compulsively checking their e-mail. A quick electronic message could have informed every student within seconds. Instead, after the entire weekend went by, the decision was made to inform via a paper flyer under a door.

It seems doubtful that the time to enter a message and send it out by CANN would take longer than the paper method. This system required, most likely, printing and/or photocopying of enough copies for every dorm room on campus and then individuals to deliver them. And what about the students that live off campus? There is a great possibility that University students live on Cameron and Kernochan Avenues; it was between these two streets on the Hempstead Turnpike that the assault took place.

The CANN is an excellent use of technology for safety in the wake of Virginia Tech. It would be, however, more useful if it was used more often…for reasons other than tests and snow days.