Some new features are being added to the AU Alert system.
The original AU Alert was implemented in November 2007 and relied on text messages and email to notify students of campus safety concerns. Now, AU Alert can be followed on Twitter and Facebook, and voice command-capable phones have been integrated into the system.
There are also sirens and voice alarms in several buildings on campus.
"We're also working out a desktop alerting system," said Susan McCallister, director of public safety and information and education at the University. "Anyone who loads it will have it pop up when AU Alert is activated."
Once texts are sent by AU Alert's vendor, High Ground Solutions, it is up to the student's phone service to get the texts through. However, McCallister said cellphone towers are affected any time a storm is passing through the area.
"A storm can cause delays, or people contacting each other to make sure they are OK could inherently create delays in the system," McCallister said.
When tornadoes hit Auburn Nov. 16, students complained they did not receive an AU Alert until the tornado warning had expired or after they had already been ushered into a shelter on campus.
"It is the nature of this type of alerting system," McCallister said. "You can't contact 30,000 people in a small geographic area at the same time. There are limitations."
McCallister said there is an analysis performed after each alert, and the vendor has identified a few things that went wrong with the tornado watch alerts.
"The vendor made a few changes, and they did not think it would have this impact on the alerts," McCallister said. "It was an unintended consequence, but we did have a number of people who reported getting them very promptly."
McCallister said another problem is that students enter their parent's number first rather than their own.
"The first number needs to be the student's cell number because they go out first," McCallister said. "The numbers are randomized for all faculty, staff and students. The system randomly contacts a first batch, then a second batch."
Kiersten Wones, junior in Spanish and English, said she was already in a shelter when her alert came.
"We were having lunch in the Student Center when a tornado warning came over the loudspeaker," Wones said. "We got up to leave to go to Haley, but they told everyone to go to the first floor and we ended up in a back hallway by the service elevator."
Wones received her AU Alert five minutes before the warning expired, but said it is nice to have a system in place regardless.
"I've gotten an AU Alert once every few months over the past few years," Wones said. "I usually know about whatever it is before I get them, but it is really helpful to know when things are over. I like that follow-up messages are sent."
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