If an on-campus emergency were to happen, Oklahoma U.’s communication system is prepared to notify students as soon as possible, according to Chris Shilling, university spokesman.
In light of any on-campus emergency, students, faculty and staff should call 911, which will notify OUPD. OUPD then triggers the emergency response system, which alerts students, faculty and staff of the emergency.
Blackboard ConnectEd, OU’s emergency system, was installed around the time of the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. It has multiple data centers around the U.S. so even if a disaster like a fire or tornado affects OU’s communication abilities, another off-campus data center anywhere in the nation can send out texts, calls and e-mails to ensure the safety of OU’s students, said Nick Key, OU Information Technology spokesman.
“We exhaust all communication strategies possible,” said Shilling.
Text messages are usually sent out within a minute of system activation, while phone calls often take 10-20 minutes, Key said. The system has the ability to detect whether a live person answers or if a voicemail is being left and will call numbers that do not answer a second time.
“E-mail is a secondary form of communication in cases of emergencies,” Key said.
Not only do e-mails take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to send out, the general population does not check their e-mail nearly as frequently as their phones, Key said.
Students can log onto their account at account.ou.edu and update their emergency information. The system allows students to enter up to six phone numbers, one text messaging number and one e-mail address.
On campus, loud speakers are set up on both the Norman and Health Sciences Center campuses that allow officials to communicate with every person on campus and direct people to safe areas or inform them about areas to avoid or provide any other precautionary information, Shilling said.
Few parts of the Norman campus do not yet have these speakers, but in time they will be fully installed.
“This system is being implemented as we speak,” Shilling said.
Layers of communication are used to effectively inform executive officers about emergencies and execute emergency plans and decisions. OU’s Emergency Response Plan, which was most recently updated in July, outlines an Executive Emergency Notification Phone Tree that is to be used during emergencies.
OU executive officers attend monthly training sessions to learn how to deal with emergency situations ranging from gas leaks to shooters on campus, Shilling said. University officials are required to be Federal Emergency Management Agency trained, he said.
Anyone witnessing an emergency should call 911, as those officials are trained to take the steps necessary to activate the university’s online systems and take action.