By Joseph L. Giacalone, The Klaxon
Another tragic university shooting tests another failure of the communication alert system. Are we ever going to get this right?
At first glance, the shooting Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville does not appear to be the work of a mass murderer, but that of a college professor. However, [...]

By Leischen Stelter, Security Director News
New regulations scheduled to take effect this summer will require institutions of higher learning to change the way they develop and publish their emergency plans as well as how they report incidents.
New amendments to the Jeanne Clery Act, which were enacted into law in 2008 in the wake of [...]

By Kermit Miller, ConnectMidMissouri.com
When disaster threatens, seconds count, people often depend on sirens for warning, but they don’t always work, and some people cannot hear them. That is why the city of Fulton has taken a step in the future of emergency communication.
Tuesday, the city launched the PT2. The new emergency alert system from Purple [...]

By Siddharth Vaidyanathan, Medill Reports
Before April 2006, Omnilert LLC., a Leesburg, Va.-based mass communications company, struggled to convince colleges and universities to buy their safety alert systems.
But following the Virginia Tech shootings in 2006 and those at Northern Illinois a year later, Congress passed a modification to the Jeanne Cleary Act requiring campus security [...]

By LuAnn LaSalle, NBBusinessJournal.com
Facebook and Twitter devotees often use the online networking tools to post gossip and idle details about their lives. But the sites have also become a crucial means of communication during disasters like the shooting that unfolded in a German town Wednesday.
Shortly after a teenage gunman killed 16 people including himself, users [...]

By Billy Mitchell, Collegiate Times
When released, the emergency preparedness document was meant as a consideration for instructors to supplement to their syllabi and discuss at the beginning of the semester.
Titled “Emergency Preparedness?It’s Every Hokies’ Responsibility,” the document gives the acronym “HOKIE” to describe steps in planning ahead for an emergency, as well as steps to [...]

from WOI TV
A female student has been stabbed to death on Virginia Tech’s campus, the first killing at the school since a deadly mass shooting there in 2007.
The killing happened Wednesday night. It triggered a crisis notification system that was revamped after the shooting rampage. An electronic warning notified students they should stay in place [...]

from e2Campus
Speaker: Sam Kennedy, Assistant Director, User Services, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia
Host: Steve Hardiman, Webinar Moderator
When: Wednesday, January 21 at 2:00pm ET
Many experts believe there is no one magic solution to communicate to everyone in a crisis. They recommend having a mass text messaging system, an auto phone dialer, LED signs, loudspeakers, digital signage, web [...]

By Krystal Moya, The Daily Eastern News
The campus’ emergency response plans are in no immediate need of revision upon the enacting of the Illinois Campus Security Enhancement Act, which took effect on Jan. 1 after being signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on April 22.
The General Assembly was motivated to act on the bill after [...]