Emergency Notification Systems Are Not the Answer at Universities

The results of the Virginia Tech shooting investigation were released today and the underlying theme of the report is that the Faculty is responsible and accountable to communicate faster. I'm not trying to say that emergency notification systems don't have their place. But getting the actual message out is the easy part. Figuring out what to say is a lot harder...and that is where MissionMode comes in.

From an AP article on the story published August 30 titled Va. Tech president defends himself:

"It took administrators more than two hours to get the first e-mail warning out after Cho killed two people in a dormitory. In the interim, Cho mailed off a video confession to NBC and then made his way across the Blacksburg campus to a classroom building, where he killed 30 more victims and committed suicide.

...during those two hours, administrators carefully considered how to deal with the first burst of gunfire, including a warning or a complete campus lockdown...

At the time, however, only two administrators had the ability to send campus-wide e-mail, and the message first had to be formulated by the Policy Group, a body that includes nine vice presidents and several vice provosts and is chaired by Steger. It took a half-hour just to assemble the group."

There isn't a more appropriate scenario I could come up with as an argument for the need for MissionMode.

1. MissionMode's emergency notification feature can send an alert to all team members via their phone, email, cell, pager, etc within seconds. Team members manage schedule by time of day, and day of week.
2. Team members can then log in to an online situation center where they can communicate and collaborate no matter where they are located.
3. Pre-defined situation templates ensure that the most up to date information related to your response plans and SOPs are available at everyone's fingertips and not sitting on a desk miles away, or clogging your email server as you try to email them to everyone.
4. Task assignments can be automatically triggered and responsible parties can give task status can be updated for all team members to see.

The sooner you can get to work on a situation, the quicker you can react, take action, and save lives. MissionMode can help.