Emergency Alert System

Ted Hoef, Associate Vice President and Dean of Students

We need your help in encouraging your son or daughter to sign up for the Webster alert system. The media has reported on a number of shootings that occurred on college campuses around the country this fall. Many of these schools have relied upon similar alert systems to quickly inform their students of these shooting incidents in an effort to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Webster University has implemented a mass notification system to be used to alert students, faculty, and staff in the event of an on-campus emergency or school closure due to weather. Webster is partnering with Omnilert utilizing their e2Campus system to offer this service. The choice of notification methods will include SMS text messages to a cell phone, an email account (personal or University), a Blackberry or text pager, a RSS feed, or any combination of these. More information about this service can be obtained at: http://www.webster.edu/technology/websteralerts/You can also read the news release about this new service at:
http://www.webster.edu/news/releases/emergencyalert_070807.shtmlUnfortunately, students at Webster have not been quick to sign up for this free service. We have nearly 700 individuals signed up, but the majority have been faculty and staff. Less than 200 of our 700 student residents have signed up. We certainly hope that we never have to use our emergency alert system, but it won’t do much good if students have not signed up.

We are also working on adding other methods of communication around campus to alert our students, faculty, and staff in the event of an emergency. These systems may include audible alerts and/or lighted devices with LED messages that would help communicate with people on campus in the event of an emergency.