College to test new alert system and siren
The College of William and Mary will be testing
its new emergency alert system and campus-wide siren Monday, Sept. 24
at 10:30 a.m. The 120-decibel siren will sound for about one minute and
is expected to be heard on the campus and in the neighboring community
in Williamsburg.
The drill will allow campus officials to verify the number of William
and Mary students, faculty and staff who have signed up to be notified
by the alert system, and it will test the campus community’s knowledge
of what to do in a real emergency situation. Additionally, the siren
test will allow both the campus and the local community to become
familiar with its sound. During the drill, the College will also
activate its emergency static Web page at www.wm.edu.
“This test of the new alert system will enable us to continue educating
our campus community on what to do in the event of an emergency and to
verify the contact information we have collected,” said Vice President
for Student Affairs Sam Sadler, who also chairs the College’s emergency
response team. “We also want both our campus and local community to
become familiar with the sound of this siren, which will only be
activated in the event of an emergency of imminent danger.”
The test is part of an ongoing effort to increase emergency
preparedness at the College. In July, William and Mary signed a
contract with the The NTI Group, Inc., for an emergency alert system
that will provide rapid communication to the campus community. NTI’s
Connect-ED® service will be used by William and Mary officials in
emergency situations to send immediate messages to students, faculty
and staff members, including those at the Williamsburg campus and at
the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester. The NTI system
allows the College to send simultaneous messages to the entire campus
community through cell phones, land phones, e-mail and text message.
Each person in the system can load up to six contact numbers.
In the event of a real emergency, people in the community who hear the siren may check for information, instructions and updates on a static Web page, which will be put up in place of William and Mary’s usual home page found at www.wm.edu.
