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Westmoreland County Community College Activates CruiserAlert Three Times in Two Days
“We had a water main break on October 31st, and a bomb scare with a later ‘all clear’ on November 1st. The system worked like a charm. … Since then, we’ve seen a surge in subscriptions to the service.”
— Randy Finfrock, Director of Institutional Research/Data Services, WCCC
Challenge: A dispersed commuter campus
In an emergency, getting the word out on a commuter-college campus can be cumbersome at best. Failure to notify students, faculty and staff of class cancellations or campus closures can not only result in unnecessary travel and a costly waste of gasoline, but also jeopardize the safety of those who inadvertently end up in harm’s way. When the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007 made student security a critical issue for colleges and universities nationwide, finding a fast and effective emergency alert system became an urgent priority for Westmoreland County Community College (WCCC).
Located on a rural 80-acre campus about 36 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pa., WCCC serves nearly 6,000 full- and part-time students in three counties. Students commute up to 60 miles to attend classes at the four main-campus buildings in Youngwood and seven off-campus education centers in New Kensington, Export, Waynesburg, Indiana, Latrobe, Belle Vernon and Smithton.
WCCC’s emergency communications plan called for activation of a phone chain among the staff and 425 full- and part-time faculty. If just one person broke the chain, dozens of people could remain unaware of the emergency situation. As back-up, a voice message from the main campus switchboard alerted anyone who called into the college for information. Announcements posted on the WCCC home page (www.wccc.edu) and CampusCruiser portal also informed those who visited online.
Unless students, faculty and staff received a phone call or were actively looking for information about weather alerts, class cancellations and other urgent news, they would be unaware of a potentially life-threatening situation. WCCC clearly needed a more proactive approach to emergency communications.
Solution: Simultaneous text messaging
As a CampusCruiser customer since 2002, WCCC already had in place a secure communications portal that the college branded as “CampusConnections.” The web-based community allows students, faculty, administrators, alumni and parents to interact, collaborate and share information about classes and campus life. Because it is integrated with WCCC’s Datatel Colleague software, the portal gives authorized administrators access to the full database of students, faculty and staff.
Excerpt from "Westmoreland County Community College Activates CruiserAlert Three Times in Two Days," Success Stories, Timecruiser.com. Copyright 2008 Timecruiser Computing Corporation, Fairfield, NJ. |
