I recently sent a letter to the parents of all Ithaca College students with an update on the College's efforts to enhance the safety and security of our campus. It included information on our new Emergency Notification System (ENS), plans to install an outdoor public address system, and our 24-hour locking policy for residence halls.
I wanted to share the text of that letter with the entire campus community. We will continue to provide information during the course of the year, as we further develop our plans for responding to emergency situations.
Brian McAree
Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Life
October 12, 2007
Dear Parents and Family:
For parents of returning students, you will recall that last April, President Peggy R. Williams sent you a letter in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings that shared some of Ithaca College's safety plans and procedures. Now that we are several weeks into the fall semester, I wanted to take the opportunity to update all parents on the status of some of the measures that the College has undertaken to enhance the safety and security of all members of the campus community.
In early September we launched the Emergency Notification System (ENS), a new program designed to improve the College's ability to reach all students, faculty, and staff with time-sensitive information during unforeseen events. Alerts that are sent through the ENS go to all Ithaca College e-mail accounts by default. The system also has the ability to send alerts through voice and text messaging. Those two methods are optional; however, students, faculty, and staff must sign up to receive emergency messages in this fashion.
We have been promoting the ENS to the campus community, explaining why it is important to take advantage of the option to receive emergency alerts in as many ways as possible. I would like to enlist your help in encouraging your son or daughter to sign up for the Emergency Notification System, so that we may provide him or her with important information and details on appropriate responses during critical situations. While we all like to think "it can't happen here," we have also seen in recent weeks and months that safety threats can and do happen on college campuses just as they do in the "outside world."
By visiting the ENS website, students can list the ways they would like to be contacted in an emergency (in addition to their Ithaca College e-mail address). This could include a personal e-mail address they may use frequently (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, e.g.), their cell phone number for text messages, and up to six telephone numbers they would like to receive the voice message. This can include their own cell phone as well as their parents' home and/or cell phone numbers.
While access to register for the service is limited to students, faculty, and staff, you can read more about the ENS program in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the website, which can be found at https://www.ithaca.edu/emergencynotification/.
The Emergency Notification System was established by the College in conjunction with Connect-Ed, a company that provides comprehensive communications systems to educational institutions. The ENS will only be used in situations in which it is vital to give immediate notification and instructions to the campus community, and the contact information provided will be kept confidential and not used for any other purpose.
We plan to conduct a test of the ENS on Thursday, October 25, so we are hoping that a majority of students will have signed up for the service by that time. Again, I encourage you to ask your son or daughter to visit the website to add his or her personal contact information.
The College is also planning to install an outdoor loudspeaker system that would include both a siren and voice capability to deliver emergency warnings and messages. This public address system could be used alone or in concert with the ENS, reaching campus visitors and others who do not have access to the voice, e-mail, and text message alerts. We expect to have this system in place by the spring semester.
Finally, as you may know, beginning this fall all exterior doors to the residence halls are locked 24 hours a day. Previously, residence halls were locked beginning at 9:00 p.m. each evening until the following morning. Students living in each residence hall need to use their combined room/exterior door key in order to get into their building. Visitors must use their cell phone or an access phone, located at the entry to each residence hall, to call the person they are visiting to meet them at the entrance to let them into the building. We believe that the enhanced security from 24-hour locking outweighs any inconvenience this may cause to students.
The Ithaca College Core Emergency Response Team (CERT), of which I serve as chair, meets on a regular basis to assess the College's preparedness and to develop timely, coordinated, and effective responses to emergency situations. Regarding preventive safety and security, we have an experienced public safety force with full peace officer powers, which trains and consults regularly with local and state police agencies on emergency response plans.
I hope you will find the above information helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the safety and security of the Ithaca College campus.
Sincerely,
Brian McAree
Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Life
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20071102155720565