University unveils warning system

Loud sirens and thundering voices. It’s not a message from the gods. It’s the new University outdoor warning system. The system, which was installed in November, is designed to inform students of campus emergencies. University Police Chief Mike Medders said the system is programmed to broadcast tones and pre-recorded messages to notify students and faculty of a variety of situations not just tornadoes.

“The City of Tyler’s alarm system is only used if a tornado touches down within city limits,” Medders said. “We can activate our system whenever we want.”

Medders said the campus system could be activated whenever the surrounding community is affected, such as Chapel Hill.

The system is currently being tested regularly to ensure it remains in proper working condition, Medders said. The tests will eventually be limited to once a month on the first Tuesday if the weather is clear.

Students say the warning system has already grabbed their attention.

“It’s really loud,” psychology major Kellie Daniel said.  She said the test happened during finals week and she believed it was distracting for students who were taking tests. Wesley Norton, a sociology and history major, said he lives four blocks from campus and can hear the warnings from his home. Daniel said the tests aren’t as loud now as they were then and she said she likes the system because it’s not just for weather.

“Every college that has residential areas around it should have something like this because the city doesn’t always cover it,” she said.

The system has messages for law enforcement emergencies, hazardous material spills, different tones for tornadoes and other severe weather and campus evacuations such as a shooting.

Medders said safety officials at universities nationwide are instituting similar warning systems to better inform the campus communities. The University Police Department already has the ability to notify students and faculty through cellular telephone text-messages, e-mail and voice mail, he said.

University Police Sgt. Heath Cariker said the new outdoor warning system is “the fastest way to get the message out to the most people.” The system is only intended for outdoors, though it can be heard in some buildings, Medders said.

He said it is to notify people to move indoors, seek shelter and wait for further instructions.

Medders said the cost of installing an indoor warning system is too high. However, the department has purchased wireless informer boxes, which will be placed in high traffic areas of campus buildings and provide information.

He said the combination of all the systems should provide information to enough people that everyone should know something, even if it’s just word-of-mouth from other students.

He said the department also is working with software developers to create a program that will take over computers connected to the campus network and display emergency information.

This will allow teachers to receive during classes since students can’t have cell phones on to receive text messages in the classroom, he said. He said anyone interested in receiving the emergency text messages could register on the University Police web site at www.uttyler.edu/police.