UTC communication lags: In emergency situations information moves slowly
Editorial
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Editorial
While the power outage and bomb threat turned out to be low on the severity spectrum, someday UTC may experience a genuine emergency, and when information is not properly administered, lives may be lost.
Even though it would be unimaginably tragic to lose fellow students, it would be even worse to know their deaths could have been prevented, since the information system had proven, on numerous occasions, to be faulty.
Whether the mix up of information is caused by human error and lack of judgment or a glitch in technology, someone needs to be held responsible, and the catastrophe must be rectified.
Solutions need to be developed, and e-mail is not the answer.
E-mail is good for low-priority events, such as letting people know the upcoming athletic schedule or about informative speakers two weeks in advance. But when there is an emergency, e-mail is not reliable enough.
As in the case a few weeks ago, there are power outages or problems with the internet going down. Checking e-mail is also not a common occurance for all students. Despite the stress put on making it the primary address, many students prefer Yahoo! or Google accounts with more space and more options when it comes to storing precious information.
Perhaps the text message alerts are the way to go, but unlike the e-mail, that route has not been stressed enough.
Many students are not signed up for the alert system, and avoid it because they do not want to hear useless information about the university.
The system is not, in fact, used for information spreading other than in emergency situations.
So maybe making the text message system mandatory would be useful for UTC and its students who need to know important emergency information.
Whatever the situation is, the problem needs to be addressed before it is too late.
Even though it would be unimaginably tragic to lose fellow students, it would be even worse to know their deaths could have been prevented, since the information system had proven, on numerous occasions, to be faulty.
Whether the mix up of information is caused by human error and lack of judgment or a glitch in technology, someone needs to be held responsible, and the catastrophe must be rectified.
Solutions need to be developed, and e-mail is not the answer.
E-mail is good for low-priority events, such as letting people know the upcoming athletic schedule or about informative speakers two weeks in advance. But when there is an emergency, e-mail is not reliable enough.
As in the case a few weeks ago, there are power outages or problems with the internet going down. Checking e-mail is also not a common occurance for all students. Despite the stress put on making it the primary address, many students prefer Yahoo! or Google accounts with more space and more options when it comes to storing precious information.
Perhaps the text message alerts are the way to go, but unlike the e-mail, that route has not been stressed enough.
Many students are not signed up for the alert system, and avoid it because they do not want to hear useless information about the university.
The system is not, in fact, used for information spreading other than in emergency situations.
So maybe making the text message system mandatory would be useful for UTC and its students who need to know important emergency information.
Whatever the situation is, the problem needs to be addressed before it is too late.
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