BY ELENA CHOPYAK

In print | May 1, 2008

On Monday an e-mail from Dean Jim Larimore informed students of the college’s implementation of Connect-ED®, a new emergency telephone messaging system. Larimore’s message requested that students record their telephone contact information in mySwarthmore, and informed them of a test-run of the system to be conducted on May 5th at 1:30 pm.
In light of numerous institutional and national emergencies, an emergency message system is one part of the college’s plan to ensure everyone’s safety. “It is hard to define in advance what types of emergencies we will face and since 9/11 and more recently the Virginia Tech disaster and Katrina It is clear that one has to be prepared to respond to whatever presents itself and to identify and put in place the tools that will allow you to do [this] effectively,” Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61 said in an e-mail.
According to Associate Vice President of Facilities and Services Stu Hain the college has a steering committee for emergency preparedness, which includes members Hain, Larimore, the Provost AVP for Human Resources, the Director of Communications, the Director of Public Safety, the Director of Maintenance, Chief Information, the Technology Officer, the Associate Director, Database Management, the Housing Coordinator, the ADA Program Manager, the Executive Assistant, of Facilities and Services, the Technology Coordinator of Facilities and Services and the Environmental Health and Safety Officer.
Starting last fall, the steering committee considered a number of service providers before settling on Connect-ED®. “When we decided to look at notification software, we took a look at the various companies offering these services, all of which offer very similar capabilities and pricing. Our decision to sign-up with Connect-ED came after a review of the product and conversations with peer customers such as Williams [College], Amherst [College], and Reed [College],” Associate Director of Enterprise Systems Glenn Stauffer said in an e-mail.
Connect-ED® sends mass messages to many people at once in the forms of e-mail, voice mail and text messages. Within his message to students, Larimore clarified that students may opt out of receiving text messages.
According to Stauffer, Connect-ED® runs out of different servers in different locations across the U.S., and requires that an authorized individual log into the system to send pre-composed or new messages. “The actual [delivery] time varies and we are currently doing testing to ensure that our expectations are in line with the confirmed performance of the system,” Stauffer said in an e-mail.
While many people and departments have been involved in the decision-making processes, much of the system implementation has been undertaken by Information Technology Services and Human Resources. According to Hain, Connect-ED® will cost the college $8500 annually.
Connect-ED® is currently used by a number of institutions in addition to the college. “Their customers include a fairly broad spectrum of small liberal arts colleges, community colleges and large universities such as Williams, Reed, Amherst, Princeton [University], Tulane [University], [University of] Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, among others. Since Connect-ED is now owned by Blackboard, one can only anticipate further growth in their Higher Ed customer base,” Stauffer said in an e-mail.
The new system will be used in accordance to the college’s communications plan, which defines threatening situations as those that may cause “loss of life, injuries, or other harm to members of the Swarthmore community [or] substantial damage to the college, be it physical or environmental.”
According to Eldridge, Connect-ED® is not the only system being put in place to ensure safety. The college is currently able to send mass voice mails to all campus phones.
A loudspeaker system is in the works, with the intent of reaching all classrooms and offices in case of an emergency. Additionally, Eldridge noted that the college has been working on developing and upgrading its crisis management system over the past several years.
Students are asked to register their phone numbers by this Friday, May 2nd.

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