Ever since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting incident, schools & universities have worked diligently to implement mass notification systems to better communicate with students & staff in times of emergency.
These mass notification systems, however, do come with challenges. Schools added layers to these systems, which posed problems with integrating them into one system. The more integrated, the longer it takes to send an alert. And according to FSU's emergency management coordinator, Dave Bujak, "in situations such as these, seconds can mean the difference between life and death and you can't afford minutes."
FSU is among one of the most aggressive universities that has adopted the "easy button" approach with 32 layers as part of its system. They are broken down into 10 primary modes of contact such as websites, Facebook, Twitter, mobile app, etc.
Many schools & universities will be watching to see how this process works at FSU. This will help in their decision-making on handling mass notifications at their own schools & universities.
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Source: Security Systems News