Few give U. cell number for alerts

University officials are urging students to enter their cell phone numbers into the digital notification system that allows administrators to alert students of an emergency by phone and email.

An alert system, similar to the University's Princeton Telephone and Email Notification System (PTENS), proved successful at St. John's University in New York last week, after a man was spotted carrying a rifle on campus. Though the gunman was arrested within 10 minutes, the administration used its mass-communication system to notify students and tell them to stay indoors.

The system drew praise from both university and public officials, including New York Governor Eliot Spitzer '81.

But the majority of Princeton students have yet to enter their contact information into PTENS. More than 90 percent of freshmen have submitted their numbers through SCORE, the student course registration system. Only 25 percent of sophomores, juniors and seniors have registered.

"We still need undergraduate and graduate students who have cell phones or other text messaging addresses to enter this information into the SCORE system," Director of Communications Lauren Robinson-Brown '86 said. She noted that those who have not registered would still receive notifications through email and dorm phones.

PTENS also has the advantage of letting the University send information "to targeted audiences — for example, students living in a particular residence hall," Assistant Director for Environmental Health and Safety Robin Izzo said in an email.

In an emergency, using a single means of communication, such as mass emails, "introduces a greater chance that the message may not be received in time," Elizabeth Horan, a representative of NTI Connect-ED, which produces the service, said in an email.

The use of these mass notification systems has increased recently, as many universities, including Princeton, acquired the systems in the wake of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.

Horan said over 150 campuses are now using the Connect-ED system, which typically costs $2 to $2.50 per student per year. In September, PTENS was used to notify students in the engineering school and Lawrence Apartments about a bomb threat on campus. Other universities have used it to warn students about tornadoes and flooding.

The University conducted a test of PTENS in May by sending over 28,000 calls and emails to students and faculty. Eighty-six percent of the calls were successfully delivered, and 61 percent of the messages were sent within 20 minutes. The additional 14 percent of calls were either unanswered or not delivered.

After this test, several adjustments were made to the system to improve the efficiency of data uploading, Izzo said. The University also "adjust[ed] the rate at which the alert messages are sent to campus phones, in order to prevent any potential overload of the University's telephone system," Izzo added.

Another test of PTENS is planned at 1 p.m. on Oct. 19. "We do encourage all Princeton community members to update their contact information before the Oct. 19 test," Robinson-Brown said.