October 1, 2007
SMS Alert Used In NY College Following Gunman Arrest
Students at John's University in New York were warned about a man walking onto the campus with a loaded rifle 16 minutes after he had done so.
"Without the university’s effective planning and its community’s cooperation, this situation could have concluded quite differently,” said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
The first alert was sent after the gunman was apprehended, so it’s unlikely the outcome would have been very different. However, it does demonstrate the usefulness of SMS as a mass communication tool, and the main benefit would have been to keep people informed and prevent rumors running riot in the campus.
The number of students enrolled in the alert program more than tripled from 2100 to 6,500, out of 20,000 students, following the incident."
[via MocoNews]
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