Bridgewater State Deploys Alert System

Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts will deploy Honeywell's new Instant Alert Plus, a system designed to send out alerts to students, faculty, and staff in times of emergency. The "Plus" version of Instand alert is a Web-based notification system that can, according to Honeywell, deliver 100,000 30-second phone calls and 125,000 text messages in 15 minutes.

"Our staff and students prefer to receive information in different ways to suit their lifestyles and preferences," said Pat Cronin, associate vice president of Bridgewater's Department of Technology, Systems, and Networking. "It may be easier to reach students with a text message, while a phone call may be more effective for faculty. Instant Alert Plus allows us to immediately reach people in whatever way they choose."

The system includes support for alerts for standard phones, cell phones, pagers, and PDAs, as well as e-mail. Administrators can activate alerts by making a phone call or typing messages on a computer. The system uses "distributed, redundant call center networks" to disseminate information and can send custom messages to pre-defined groups.

Bridgewater State College serves roughly 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

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About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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