Chicago State University (CSU) and Rave Wireless, Inc., the leading provider of safety applications for mobile users, today announced the April 15 launch of Rave Guardian to enhance campus safety for its students, faculty and staff. The mobile phone-activated personal safety tool allows students to proactively connect with and be monitored for safety by campus police. Rave Guardian, the next generation in mobile safety, is designed to prevent incidents from occurring, and this month received the top Emerging Technology Award for Public Safety by the International CTIA wireless association.

“Campus safety is an ongoing issue on college campuses across the country. We are the first in Illinois to incorporate the breakthrough Rave Guardian technology because it’s important to take every possible measure to keep our students safe,” says James Maddox, Chicago State’s interim chief of police.

CSU students and other members of the campus community sign-up for Rave Guardian through a quick online process that registers their mobile numbers, the photo from their ID cards, physical description, pertinent health information, emergency contacts, and more. When a student activates Guardian, this information-plus their location on the campus map-is automatically provided to campus police on a large plasma screen in the dispatch office, and on laptops in squad cars that are patrolling the campus.

“Having a student’s complete profile and location information provides us with an enhanced 911 service that improves our ability to respond to incidents, saving valuable time. If a major incident occurs, it can also save lives. Rave Guardian is not only extremely user-friendly; it is far more sophisticated and effective than other safety technologies, such as our bluelight system.”

“I signed up for Rave Guardian as soon as I received the email announcing the upcoming launch,” says Keocco Larry, a CSU sophomore. “Because I can access police instantly with my cell phone’s speed dial, I don’t have to remember to carry another device or hope that there’s a campus bluelight within reach if I need one.”

Rave Guardian complements CSU’s multimodal Rave Alert system, deployed in spring 2008. That system enables the University to react to and manage a situation by quickly sending emergency text alerts, voice messages and emails to the entire campus or specific groups. Rave Guardian is a fully hosted system that is easily deployed without any hardware or software to install. The system works on any cell phone from any provider in the U.S. and can be used with any emergency notification system.

“Mobile phones have nearly 100% penetration across student and employee populations. We have developed a unique, patented safety application that leverages these mainstream devices, and provides safety officers with powerful data that goes beyond what is transmitted during a 911 call,” says Raju Rishi, chief strategy officer and co-founder, Rave Wireless, Inc. “We commend Chicago State for joining other major universities & organizations around the country that are at the forefront of safety technologies, and for recognizing that Rave Guardian is capable of helping its police be more efficient, better responders.”

Universities that use both Rave Alert and Rave Guardian, as is the case at CSU, realize the added convenience of accessing both emergency applications from a single administrative console that taps into the same unified student database.

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Rave Wireless April 2009 press release.

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