Colleges Adopt Virginia Tech Safety Measures
(NewsUSA) - In the months following the tragedy, colleges across the country have been adopting comprehensive security plans that aim to protect students and faculty from events similar to the Virginia Tech shootings last April. The Security Infrastructure Group, hired by Virginia Tech to perform an internal review and determine new ways of alerting students in case of future emergencies, highly recommended that schools use several different methods to increase physical and emotional security among residents on campus.
Since the review, many schools have begun installing and testing sirens and alarm systems with high decibel levels -; high enough to alert even those in the most remote corners of a school's campus. Additionally, the Infrastructure Group also mandated the use of internal Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, which would let students and faculty transmit voice conversations over a campus-wide intranet, helping alert those not aware of possible threats to safety but who were near any campus computer.
One of the key recommendations made to ensure security on college campuses was to utilize high-tech messaging and communication systems that can warn thousands with the simple click of a mouse. One such system is TechRadium's patented Immediate Response Information System, or IRIS. IRIS sends messages through multiple communication devices including landline telephones, cell phones, e-mail, pagers and PDAs. The system can communicate to people in more than 10 languages, so successful contact is virtually guaranteed.
"Immediate response notification systems are faster, more effective and much more cost-efficient than manual systems," said John Rodkey, spokesperson for TechRadium. "$2 to $3 annually is a small price to pay to save students lives."
As more colleges and universities nationwide sign up for emergency services like IRIS, it's clear that the number-one priority for every school is making sure that each and every individual attending school doesn't have to look over their shoulder on campus -; be it a student body of 5,000 or 50,000. For more information on TechRadium, visit www.useiris.com.