Students seek safety in numbers... phone numbers
Lacurra Bryant
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: News
For many students and parents, safety on college campuses has been an increasingly vital concern, but Florida Southern has a solution to ease the mind of students and to keep them informed via one of the most-used forms of communication among college-aged students - text messaging. "In the beginning, these messages were created as a precaution to the Virginia Tech horror," John Thomas said. Now the text-messaging program is used to inform the tech-savvy student body of not only weather cancellations and delays, but also warn the students in emergency situations such as the recent bomb threat.
Signing up for the safety texts is not mandatory, but it is free to all students. To receive the texts students are encouraged to go to the FSC website and scroll down to the Text Messaging System. Students can receive the texts by text messaging, Blackberry, wireless PDA, pager, e-mail, FSC website bulletin board, or by Google, Yahoo, or AOL homepage.
After that, scroll down to the registration form and fill in personal information to create an account. After registering, a message will be sent to the cell phone for validation. Students are to keep their cell phone on to complete the process. After receiving the validation code, enter it on the validation web page to activate the account.
Many students on the FSC campus have signed up for the safety texts and gave good feedback on the helpfulness they provide. "The texts are very helpful and they keep me informed," say Jamie Steinberg.
"I was sitting in class during the Edge Hall bomb threat and I was the only one who had the safety texts, so I told my teacher and he was definitely shocked that I knew before he did. If I had not gotten the texts, we would have still been in the classroom. It was really funny," says Katie Manzer.
FSC does have an announcement system, but if some people can't hear the announcements they would have the ability to simply check their cell phones.
The text messaging system has proved beneficial to the students of FSC. Students are encouraged to sign up to receive the texts just as a safety precaution. The texts are for students on the move who like to stay informed and up to date.
Signing up for the safety texts is not mandatory, but it is free to all students. To receive the texts students are encouraged to go to the FSC website and scroll down to the Text Messaging System. Students can receive the texts by text messaging, Blackberry, wireless PDA, pager, e-mail, FSC website bulletin board, or by Google, Yahoo, or AOL homepage.
After that, scroll down to the registration form and fill in personal information to create an account. After registering, a message will be sent to the cell phone for validation. Students are to keep their cell phone on to complete the process. After receiving the validation code, enter it on the validation web page to activate the account.
Many students on the FSC campus have signed up for the safety texts and gave good feedback on the helpfulness they provide. "The texts are very helpful and they keep me informed," say Jamie Steinberg.
"I was sitting in class during the Edge Hall bomb threat and I was the only one who had the safety texts, so I told my teacher and he was definitely shocked that I knew before he did. If I had not gotten the texts, we would have still been in the classroom. It was really funny," says Katie Manzer.
FSC does have an announcement system, but if some people can't hear the announcements they would have the ability to simply check their cell phones.
The text messaging system has proved beneficial to the students of FSC. Students are encouraged to sign up to receive the texts just as a safety precaution. The texts are for students on the move who like to stay informed and up to date.
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