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News |
Michael D. Chason |
IMMEDIATE OCTOBER 2, 2008
ABAC to Implement New Campus Alert Service
TIFTON– A new emergency messaging
system to alert students, faculty, and staff at
Golden said the college will add to its emergency notification procedures the Connect-ED communication service by BlackBoard Connect, Inc., to provide ABAC with the ability to reach all students, faculty and staff with time-sensitive information within minutes.
“Today we are forced to prepare for emergency situations that years ago we never could have anticipated happening,” Golden said. “We can use it for everything from a weather alert to a severe emergency of any nature to keep everyone informed whether they are in their apartments on campus, sitting in front of their computers, or on their way to class.”
Built exclusively for post-secondary institutions using the experience gained in delivering hundreds of millions of messages for K-12 educators, the service enables ABAC to schedule, send, and track voice messages to at least two phone numbers and one text message per person.
“It’s crucial that we are able to notify students immediately in emergency situations because up-to-date communication helps minimize the spread of misinformation, restore order and provide direction,” Golden said. “With our weather alert siren, which has public address capabilities, we already have a terrific system.
“In fact, we are in the process of getting another weather alert siren that will be placed down by ABAC Lakeside. This new Connect-ED system will supplement our existing warning system.”
The new system can be used to notify students, faculty, and staff of ABAC closures and contingency plans due to inclement weather, issues arising from pandemics, or other late-breaking developments. Connect-ED has been successfully used for communication by schools across the country during events such as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ernesto, school shootings, campus notifications required by the Clery Act, and to help locate missing children.
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