New alert system to be installed post-Viginia Tech deaths

Through advancements in technology and communicating through text messaging, Maricopa Community Colleges District is working to provide a safer environment for both the students and faculty.

Dustin Fennell, dean of information technology at SCC said they have been looking for new ways to communicate with faculty and students even before the Virginia Tech shooting and copycat threat at Estrella Mountain Community College occurred.

ClearTXT is one of the major technology advancements that the Maricopa Community Colleges are using to help provide a safer environment. ClearTXT will make it possible to communicate with faculty and students, not only through computers, but cell phones as well. Everyone will be informed of emergencies occurring on campus via text message.

"It's not like high school; we don't have intercom systems on college campuses," said Charles Summers, director of public safety at EMCC.

ClearTXT will provide the same efficiency and speed an intercom would when informing people of emergencies and crisis.

SCC is currently discussing installing card reader systems, where everyone on campus will have an identification card that they would swipe to gain access into a building.

Craig Emanuel, director of college safety, said that the cards would help keep people out of where they don't belong.

EMCC is also installing a card reader system that will allow faculty to lock doors from inside the classroom, and various flat screen TVs throughout the campus will inform students and faculty of emergencies and evacuations.

Before these technological advancements, Maricopa County Community Colleges relied on word of mouth. Emergencies were told to be handled calmly and notify a public safety officer immediately and wait for the officer to arrive.

Emanuel said that campus safety is not something you can just put a "Band-Aid" over; it is constantly going to need updating and people are working all the time to provide the safest campus possible.