MU pushes alert sign-up
MU offers phone call or text message alerts in case of a campus emergency.
Published Jan. 25, 2008
Faced with lagging registration for the new UM system emergency alert program, the Division of Information Technology is adopting new measures and incentives to bolster the emergency alert database.
The UM system announced the alert system in September. Alerts were fully operational by early December, but IT Director Terry Robb said many students, faculty and staff members haven't updated their contact information.
Starting Jan. 16, IT set up a table in Brady Commons to promote the system and provide incentives for registration, such as a raffle for an Apple iPod. The IT staff who manage the table have laptops available for immediate registration.
"Ever since we told people they could get a free iPod, it has helped," Division of IT specialist Brennan Hobart said. The free iPod incentive has increased sign-ups by about 50 percent, he said.
University officials first asked students to sign up in an e-mail that provided a link to the MU Alert Web site, which links to the myZou web application, where students can update their information. But the initiative met with an overall poor response.
"I got the e-mail, but it was just something that passed me by," senior Josh Campbell said. "I figured I would do it later."
Campbell and graduate student Marcie Kottemann stopped at the IT table Jan. 18 to register for the alert system.
"When I read the e-mail I thought it was something important, but I didn't act at that moment," Kottemann said. "I guess I was putting it off, being a little lazy."
Students have the option of emergency notification via a cell phone call or text message, and both Campbell and Kottemann said they chose the text message notification.
"It's a little bit easier," Campbell said. "I can read text messages anytime, like during class. But if I get a voicemail, I can't check it until after class."
Kottemann said the text message alerts are more appealing because she'd be able to receive an alert while she's working.
"I'm at work about 30 hours a week, so it's more likely that I would be able to pick up my phone and read a text message than answer my phone or check voicemail," she said. "I hope we don't need to use it, but I think with the way students communicate now, that it's more useful to have something on your cell phone or e-mail."
The Division of IT is exploring other ways to promote the new alert system to the MU community.
"We sent a mailed reminder to all faculty and staff informing them of this," Robb said. "Also, for all the new students coming to the school, when we have their e-mail accounts set up, we will go through the need for the emergency communications."
The division also uses traditional forms of advertising such as The Maneater and MU Info, Robb said.
"When it comes for pre-registration, we'll probably have a reminder on myZou and a mass e-mail, probably in April — around the time change — or late March, whenever the time change is," Robb said. "We're exploiting every channel we can think of. We want to get everyone signed up."