Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

e2Campus Security Sparks False Alarm

By Kaitlyn Callaluca

kicallaluca@vwc.edu

A text message from e2Campus Emergency system was sent Sept. 10 to all those who have signed up for the new self-service notification system, startling those who received it. At 12:10 p.m., students received this message:  Evacuate all buildings away from all structures. Bomb threat.

Many students who received the message did evacuate whatever building they were in, but beyond that, there was some general confusion about what to do next.

Five minutes later, students received another message under the subject  Disregard Last Message. It read:  Disregard please& 

Though the bomb threat turned out to be false, it exposed flaws in the e2Campus system. The biggest problem is that not everyone received the messages. The college is not allowed to register people for this service, so students must provide their phone numbers and one e-mail address through the school s website.

The emergency response team is still requesting that everyone on campus should sign up online for the service as soon as possible.

Still, even students who received the text were not aware of it until much later. Junior Ashley Roane admitted,  I didn t even see the messages on my phone until 20 minutes later. I have my phone on vibrate.

In an e-mail to the campus community sent minutes after the mistake, Dean of Students David Buckingham addressed this situation as a mistake:  In a practice test of the e2Campus Emergency system, a warning message was accidentally sent&  Whether or not the message was an accident still leaves open to question the usefulness of a phone warning system for students on campus.