CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The University of Cincinnati has ramped up safety with a new emergency notification system.
Ed Dadosky, the director of emergency management, said the university still uses a system called Rave Alerts. It notifies students and staff about potential dangers through email and text messages.
“Ohio State had their campus attacker with a knife. They were using Rave and also used Alertus on top of that as well,” said Dadosky.
Dadosky was intrigued by the idea of blending rave with Alertus. The goal is to easily notify people in more places, and students like William Hennessy like that.
“Last year, we had an incident where someone fired a gun and it was reported on different social medias before it was released on email and stuff like that,” said Hennessy.
After about a year and a half of partnerships with IT@UC, Campus Services, Planning Design + Architecture, Facilities Management, Athletics and Public Safety, Alertus is now in effect. It works with Rave Alerts so people are not just getting emails and texts.
“Now, you will see something on the campus signage, a message on college cable in the dormitory; you're going to get a message on the desktop computer,” said Dadosky.
Public Safety is working with the athletic department to have Alertus notifications broadcast on scoreboards at Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena. Alert beacons will also be installed. It is five new platforms to notify people of potential emergencies.
“We’ll never look back. Now, it will be different things we can add in potentially to make the system more robust," said Dadosky.
The university also wants students and staff to download the "Bearcat Guardian" app. It can turn smartphones into safety devices.
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