Ithaca College faculty and staff members will receive the first test messages from the new Emergency Notification System (ENS) on the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 23. A test message will be sent to all faculty and staff e-mail accounts and to office telephones whose numbers are listed in the campus phone directory—those who do not have the telephone at their desk listed in the directory will not receive the test message by phone.
The college is implementing the ENS to help improve communications to the campus community in the event of an emergency. The test will help determine how well and how quickly such messages can be distributed, as well as give faculty and staff members a sense of what they might see and hear in the event of an actual emergency.
For faculty and staff, the Emergency Notification System uses the phone number that is listed for each individual in the campus telephone directory. The college is establishing a website that will give faculty, staff and students the option of adding contact methods, including additional phone numbers, e-mail addresses and a cell phone number for text messages.
Ithaca College has contracted with Connect-Ed, a division of the NTI Group, to help provide the service. The ENS will only be used in the event of a situation in which it is vital to give immediate notification and instructions to the campus community. The contact information will not be used by the college or by Connect-Ed for any other purpose. For more information on Connect-Ed, visit http://www.ntigroup.com/products/higher-ed.asp.
Additional testing, to include students, will take place later in the fall semester, once the website is established and members of the campus community have had the opportunity to add contact methods. In order to ensure that the ENS is able to reach faculty, staff and students in the event of an emergency, everyone is encouraged to take advantage of this option when it becomes available.
