Is Your University Prepared to Issue Immediate Emergency Notifications Under New Higher Education Law?

The new Higher Education Act (HR-4137) states that higher education institutions must have procedures to "immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or staff occurring on the campus," among other provisions. Architected and built from the ground up to provide reliable alerting via text message, e-mail, recorded voice message and/or RSS feeds, Rave Alert is being used by universities nationwide to communicate urgent messages to entire campus communities or targeted groups of individuals.

Higher education institutions assessing possible vulnerabilities stemming from the new emergency response law can use the Rave Alert capabilities as a guideline for a best-of-breed alerting system:

• 1. Is your emergency notification system multi-modal, including capabilities for text, e-mail, recorded voice and RSS messaging?
• 2. Does your alerting system use multiple SMPP aggregators and redundant data centers?
• 3. Does your alerting system provide reporting of alert delivery and constant monitoring of text delivery to phones on all major cellular providers?
• 4. Is your alerting system capable of bulk-loading user information and keeping that information up-to-date to ensure all (or most of the) members of your campus community are registered to receive alerts?

New University Requirements for Missing Students

The newly signed law also requires higher education institutions put into place procedures to manage situations in which students are reported missing. Colleges and universities can take an even more proactive approach than the law requires by further leveraging students' mobile phones to ensure the personal safety of all students, faculty and staff. Rave Guardian is a breakthrough technology that transforms students' mobile phones into personal safety devices. When the student feels unsafe, for example while walking across a dark campus late at night, he/she can activate Rave Guardian from his/her mobile phone, automatically sending his/her picture, mobile number and personal information to campus police. Rave Guardian can even display the GPS location of students on a campus map, helping campus police respond faster and more effectively to students who need help. By activating Rave Guardian for a direct connection to campus security, students can feel safe and protected at all times.