community Harding University launches new emergency-notification system

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

SEARCY — Harding University launched a new emergency notification system and conducted a full-scale test on Oct. 2. The system, powered by Everbridge, a recognized leader in incident notification systems, reached all but 26 of the 5,611 individuals within the campus community.

Since August, the campus public safety office has urged students and employees to sign up to receive emergency notifications and update their contact information. With the fall semester infull swing, officials were ready to test the system to ensure its effectiveness and to see if it would have an impact on local cell phone service. There were no service interruptions reported.

“Harding University’s large-scale test of our new emergency notification system was a resounding success,” said Craig Russell, director of public safety at the university.

“Our ability to communicate quickly and effectively during a crisis with our students and employees helps us makea safe campus even safer.”

The Everbridge system, which replaces a campus-generated notification system, allows university officials to contact students, faculty and staff in the wake of catastrophic events, evacuations or hazardous weather. A prerecorded emergency message can be distributed with the click of a button, reaching individuals through a phone call, text message or e-mail.

The system test was designed to attempt to contact the university’s 5,611people using six different paths up to two times each. Paths included cell, home and office phones, e-mail addresses and text messaging. The test was sent at 1:09 p.m., and all attempts had been made by 1:35 p.m. with more than 24,000 total attempts. Some individuals received the notification within seconds, and others received it within just a few minutes.

Once the message is distributed, recipients have the option to send confirmation that they have receivedthe message. The system attempts to contact each person repeatedly until it receives a response, helping the university account for every individual on campus.

Officials can target specific groups or distribute the message to the entire Harding community, including the campuses in Memphis, North Little Rock and Bentonville.

Organizations in more than 100 countries use the Everbridge notification system.

Three Rivers, Pages 124 on 11/01/2009