New emergency alert system in place, ready to use

By Fritz Klug
Western Herald

Western Michigan University’s new mass notification system is something that students may never experience.

The system of indoor and outdoor speakers has the ability to alert and notify students, faculty and staff of a tornado warning, active shooter on campus, or another type of emergency.

The system is something Cam Vossen would never like to use.

“We have it there in case we need it,” she said.

The new system, which has been in the works for years, was given its first campus-wide test on March 4.

WMU Mass Notification System test from Fritz Klug on Vimeo.

The system, while one of the most powerful tools in the university’s kit, is reserved for a tornado warning, or if police have identified an active shooter on campus.

There is also a message that directs people to the WMU homepage.

Vossen said the system would only be used for extreme emergencies. “We don’t want people to tune it out,” she said.

As emergency management administrator, Vossen controls the planning for emergencies. Vossen said her approach is to be prepared for all hazards.

The audio notification system allows the message to alert anyone on campus – as long as they don’t have headphones on.

“We can interrupt every space on campus,” Pete Strazdas, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said.

Facilities Management has been involved with installing both the outdoor system as well as upgrading some of the fire alarms in buildings across campus. The WMU Police Dept. activates the system from their headquarters on Monroe Street.

The closest thing that Vossen said they would consider using a message for was a boil alert that was issued for Kalamazoo last February.

Strazdas said the system is relevant, especially given a shooting at Ohio State University on Tuesday.

Indoor and Outdoor Systems
There are 62 exterior speakers covering 356 acres of campus. They are on Miller Auditorium, Seibert Administration Building, Welborn Hall, Valleys 1, 2, and 3, and the Seley Center.

Inside 44 campus buildings, there are 3,546 interior speakers installed that cover 4.2 million square feet.
Strazdas said that $175,000 has been spent on the front end to install the outdoor speakers. Many of the costs were born by new building projects.

Photo courtesy of Pete Strazdas

“The coolest thing about it is that we have had a lot of construction in the last decade which included the new technology,” he said.

Some buildings are equipped to broadcast live voice announcements, but it is a matter of time before all of the buildings have the feature.

In older buildings, Facilities Management replaced the old “buzz” fire alarm systems with a new speaker system that can broadcast the prerecorded messages.

WMU has many other notification systems in place. WMU DPS can interrupt any of the s 800 MHz radios used across campus.

There is also the WMU hotline and Educable.
In case of a power outage, Vossen said that buildings have generators to power emergency services.

Vossen added that her office is looking into a reverse 911 system that would actually call students in a time of an emergency.

On the digital front, University Relations handles other communication notification tools, such as mass e-mails and the WMU homepage.

E-mails take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to process, Thom Myers, director of electronic communication, said, and are not a part of the first alert. Rather, the first place University Relations updates is the wmich.edu homepage.

“When people hear a rumor, it’s the first place they check,” he said.

During an emergency situation, University Relations is charged with all internal and external communications. Before anything get’s published, it has to go through their office.

The best example of this was in the fall with the information about H1N1. University Relations worked with Sindecuse Health Center in publishing information.

While the system covers most of campus, it cannot alert everyone, Vossen said. The biggest problem Vossen said is with students who walk around with headphones and cannot hear the system.
“We can only help people as much as they help themselves.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Mar 11 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com