Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences, Emergency Notification Systems, Presentations/Speeches, and Communication

This group focuses on strategic issues and tactical challenges that affect IT communications in planning for, during mitigation of, and following an emergency in higher education. Discussion topics include telecommunication infrastructure and electronic services, campus coordination, the role of IT staff, campus drills, funding, security and safety, community awareness, vendors, and information and network policies. The group examines policies, best practices, and lessons learned.

This presentation will explore the challenges that UNC–Wilmington encountered in providing for the broadcast and communication of emergency notification alerts to the at-large campus community. Since the methods of delivery can be diverse (siren, cable broadcast, internet, e-messaging), collaboration across departments was necessary to create this well-rounded solution.

Liberally paraphrasing the great American war general Dwight Eisenhower, in war, planning is everything; in battle, plans go out the window. Effective crisis communications demand significant planning. Once youre in a crisis event, instinctive reaction and reliance on experience take over. Come to this session to understand Virginia Techs crisis communications response to a tragedy for which no one can prepare.

This meeting will devote several hours to presentations and discussions regarding emergency notification systems on campus. This will include a panel of speakers from various campuses who are actively working on this issue, including Virginia Tech, and presentations by a select group of vendors. Also planned for the agenda is an update on municipal networks, 4G Wi Max and 911 capabilities on campus.