The pings arrive at all hours of the day. The latest email sounded off at 3:11 a.m. A text message trailed behind a minute later.
They cover thunderstorms, tests, and warnings that, on at least two occasions this summer, posed “no immediate health or safety threat.”
But the emails and text alerts that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s department of public safety sends to Lindsey R. Faraone’s iPhone all have one thing in common.
They’re not read.
“It’s kind of how it is with these messages,” Ms. Faraone says. “The idea behind them is that they’re for emergencies, but because a lot of the times it’s about ‘It could rain this afternoon or it might storm later,’ a lot of the time I just don’t care to read them.”
Ms. Faraone’s annoyance with the university’s emergency-alert system is shared by many college students, who gripe about not only the subject of the texts and emails but also their frequency.
Campus officials and people who sell those systems know they have a problem. “You don’t want the whole car-alarm syndrome. When you hear a car alarm, you just walk on by because you hear them all day,” says Ara Bagdasarian, chief executive officer of E2 Campus by Omnilert, an emergency-alert system used by about 850 colleges across the nation.
Scott G. Burnotes, director of emergency management at the University of Miami, says he can understand the students’ frustrations, but he’s quick to note the university’s larger concerns.
“We cannot just rely on one type of technology. We can’t just rely on text. There are technology failures,” Mr. Burnotes says. “To get people to take action, individuals need to hear something from at least three different sources. That’s why we hit them with the text. That’s why we hit them with the call. That’s why we hit them with the email.”
In 2013, according to Mr. Burnotes, the University of Miami sent 17 emergency messages to students. Seventeen hardly seems like a bothersome number. But each of those messages was sent three ways, by text, by email, and by phone call, adding up to 51 contacts.
‘In Their Best Interest’
The popularity of emergency-alert systems increased drastically after the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, which left 33 people dead, the nation’s deadliest single-gunman massacre on a college campus.
“Even though they’re getting flooded with these, it’s in their best interest to be made aware,” says Brian Bittner, Pennsylvania State University’s director of emergency management.
Diane Brown, public-information officer at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor’s police department, shares Mr. Bittner’s sentiments. While she hasn’t heard of students’ being annoyed by the alerts, she says they are a necessary tool to keep students safe.
“We still need to be responsive to the majority of our community,” Ms. Brown says. “And they would expect to be notified, and rightfully so.”
But another national expert on emergency alerts shares Mr. Bagdasarian’s concern about their overuse.
“The danger is fatigue. It’s just making sure you find the right balance between keeping urgency and not crying wolf,” says Scott W. McGrath, public-safety-solutions architect at Rave Mobile Safety. “But what are you going to do about that? We can’t stop sending alerts. It’s a tricky situation for the institution.”
According to Rave’s website, more than 1,000 colleges, reaching about 40 percent of the nation’s college students, use Rave’s emergency-alert system.
‘A Preventable Problem’
One student suffering from that fatigue and “car-alarm syndrome” is Dina M. Marando, who graduated this past spring from the University of Miami’s law school and is still on its emergency-alert system. She recognizes the university’s emergency-alert phone number as soon as it flashes across her screen. She never bothers to answer it.
“When I’d see the number call me, I’d let it go to voicemail,” she says.
Once, within an hour this summer, the university sent Ms. Marando three text messages, fired off two emails, and called her twice.
“And that was after I graduated and studying for the bar!” she says.
Ms. Marando offers an antidote to the fatigue. “A text message is sufficient. You don’t need automated, incessant, annoying phone calls,” she says. “Maybe the next day if they want to send an email explaining what happened; that’s fine. That would actually make you pay attention to it instead of being annoyed by it.”
But for a major event like a tornado or an armed robbery near the campus, aside from sometimes being legally required under the Clery Act, aren’t the text messages and emails needed to keep students safe?
“A rule of thumb is to send a text if it’s a preventable problem,” Mr. Bagdasarian says, citing an active shooter on the campus, a tornado warning or other severe weather, and a violent crime as examples of when a text is appropriate. “But we have too many communication channels nowadays,” he adds. “If it’s not something that can make an impact now, use a channel that’s not as time-sensitive, including posting to a website or email.”
Mr. Burnotes, who says the University of Miami police department has an “EZ button” to immediately send out alerts via text, phone call, and email simultaneously, sees it differently.
“It’s probably a little bit of annoyance for them, but if something turned into a bigger event, it would have saved people’s lives,” he says. “And I’ll take a bit of the annoyances and then save people’s lives.”
