Colleges now on alert in low-tech ways, too

— -- After the shootings last year at Virginia Tech and a February rampage at Northern Illinois University, colleges and universities nationwide are installing high-tech alert systems that beam emergency e-mails and voice messages to thousands of cellphones, pagers and personal computers to alert staff and students both on and off campus.

But in a bid to cover all their bases, they're also investing in decidedly more low-tech, Cold War-era alert tools: loudspeakers and sirens.

One Connecticut manufacturer says it has installed at least 100 loudspeaker-and-siren devices on college campuses — more than half of those since the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech shootings, in which a gunman killed 32 people and then himself. Another manufacturer, based in Illinois, says business has grown nearly fivefold since last April.

The reason? While cellphones, BlackBerrys and personal computers are ubiquitous, not everyone keeps them on hand all the time.

"If you put all your eggs in one basket, the message may not reach some people," says Christopher Blake of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

Among the schools investing in new siren systems: Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where officials tested theirs for the first time late in March. It uses a short, pre-recorded message sandwiched between two siren blasts, but the sky's the limit, says university spokesman Alan Cubbage. "We could make it sound like Westminster Abbey if we wanted it to."

Many colleges simply feed loudspeaker warnings through existing "blue light" emergency telephone kiosks located throughout campus. At the University of Vermont, police chief Gary Margolis says he expects a siren-and-loudspeaker system to be up and running by summer on the 645-acre campus. He already uses e-mail warnings for emergencies. But like other safety experts, he says e-mail can't reach people on athletic fields or in classes in which professors demand that students stow cellphones.

"You've got to diversify your communication streams," he says. "You've got to have low tech and high tech. There's no 'one-fits-all.' "

Alison Kiss of Security on Campus, a non-profit organization that advocates for victims of violent crime on campus, says alarm sirens and loudspeaker messages are a good idea for large campuses that have existing e-mail systems, but that without testing and student training, they're useless.

"If you ask students on campus, they have no idea what to do if it goes off," she says.

Phil Kurze, vice president of mass notification products for Whelen Engineering Co. in Chester, Conn., says the company saw "a surge in interest" after the Virginia Tech shootings — and even more after the shootings at Northern Illinois, in which a gunman killed five students.

Digital Acoustics, based in Lake Forest, Ill., installed about 30 computer-based speaker systems before the shootings; since then, 145 schools have signed on.

"People are very focused on making sure that they can inform, manage and protect their populations — the students and professors — in a thorough way," says CEO Christopher Coffin.

Maria Cimilluca, director of facilities and operations at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., says the school's new alarm system, installed late last year, is loud enough to broadcast across the college's 175 acres.

"It gets your attention," she says.

READERS: Are you satisfied with the safety and notification measures your (or your child's) school has taken?