For the most part, the number of problems academic and healthcare campuses are experiencing with their emergency alert systems has decreased compared to last year, according to Campus Safety magazine’s 2010 Mass Notification Survey results.
Message throughput problems decreased from 26 percent in 2009 to 20 percent this year, and cost challenges decreased three points from 31 percent to 28 percent. The rate of issues with local cell carriers decreased from 18 percent in 2009 to 12 percent this year, and E-mail and cell spam filters aren’t as much of an obstacle either. Only 10 percent of 2010 respondents said they were a problem, compared to 17 percent in 2009.
The rate of challenges with student enrollment in text message alert systems remained steady (31 percent this year compared to 30 percent last year), but the rate of problems with staff enrollment dropped three points from 26 percent to 23 percent.
The one area where respondents indicated they experienced greater problems was with the volume and intelligibility of their siren/loudspeaker systems. Last year, only 15 percent of respondents indicated this was an issue. This year, however, 20 percent said their systems’ messages were either difficult to understand or hear.
It appears as though campuses are shifting how they are paying for their mass notification systems from general campus budgets to IT. Last year, 59 percent of respondents indicated that the source of money for new emergency alert solutions was their general campus budget. This year that percentage dropped to 53 percent.
IT budgets paying for mass notification increased from 17 percent in 2009 to 22 percent in 2010.
To read the full report, click here.
Photo via Flickr, by Brandon Christopher Warren
