Towson has introduced a text messaging alert program and is looking into adding sirens that would help alert the campus in case of an emergency.
Last semester the University introduced the e2Campus system, which sends public safety announcements, school closing alerts and weather warnings, via text message.
A need for additional communication tools became more prevalent following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech last April.
Towson University Police Col. Bernie Gerst said that, as of last week, 4,084 people had signed up for the text messaging system.
Students can sign up for this program by visiting the TUPD Web site, http://www.towson.edu/adminfinance/facilities/police/campusemergency/.
Gerst said the University is also planning to purchase sirens. Since Towson is not a closed campus, there are always visitors and the University needs a way of alerting everyone to trouble.
"We want to have the ability to send a siren signal followed by voice instructions, so if you're anywhere outside a building you would be able to hear the siren and voice instruction prerecorded or on the spot live," he said. "At any given day you have people all over this campus. They range from visitors to contractors to delivery people, and you name it. We always have to prepare for people who are new to the campus and don't know what that siren means."
He said the company that manufactures the blue light telephones on campus provided a demonstration of the siren system to the University.
The system would require a tower that is slightly wider and deeper than the ones already on campus. It has the ability to remotely send a siren signal and voice announcement. For more money, the tower can also include a mounted camera.
"Eighteen of them could go at locations where there is already a blue light phone," he said.
Gerst said they would like to implement a similar system inside buildings as well.
He said the siren and voice system would cost upwards of "several hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"We want to make sure we do our due diligence to get the most reliable system that we can for the dollar that we can," he said.
Because of the high cost, the system may be installed incrementally.
"We need to work with the [procurement] now and write up the specifications or the capabilities that we want to purchase, and then we allow the vendors out there to bid and they write up proposals wherein they describe how they can fulfill your requirements and how much it will cost," Gerst said.
He said there may be government funding available for these security measures since the mass shootings at Virginia Tech. He is hoping there are going to be grants to help support this project and said there is one piece of legislation that earmarks federal dollars for safety improvements.
Ideally, the University would like to submit a request proposal for the siren system by Oct. 1, and have a request for purchase ready by Nov. 20.
"We are working very hard behind the scenes to be where we need to be with emergency preparedness," Gerst said. "We're all working together to make sure Towson is prepared for any and all hazards."
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