The issue of campus security is consistently on the minds of university administrators, bringing up the question of how to most efficiently alert students.
Last year, MSU initiated a system that would alert students of emergencies via text message. Now they are looking for additional ways to bring emergencies to the immediate attention of students.
By adding a Facebook.com messaging system to aid in the safety of students, MSU would look ahead of everything and ensure that the university is keeping students safe in every way possible.
Although Facebook messaging should not replace the current alert system of text and e-mail messages, it should be added to ensure every emergency is fail-safe.
Other schools, including University of Maryland at College Park, are instituting social networking Web sites to alert students in the event of an emergency.
If other schools are utilizing the same type of system, then MSU can too.
Text messages can fail to get through to students for a variety of reasons, and this would ensure a backup.
Looking at classrooms that allow computers, it’s a safe bet that a majority of the students on laptops will have a window open on Facebook.
A text message alert would create an extra route for students to receive the news faster. It might even open up a route to students who do not own phones or check e-mail regularly.
MSU has previously stated that the school would not be looking into the option because of legal and security issues. But it would be well worth the initiative for MSU to begin looking at Facebook as an alternative emergency alert system.
Sure, there are probably many students who don’t have a Facebook page, and with Facebook being a third-party option, it could be hacked by a sinister person sending out a fake alert.
But there are solutions to these problems.
Most notably, Facebook would not be the only way to get the news. It would merely be an alert for those already on the Internet.
As soon as the students received it, they would hopefully be smart enough to look at other sources, such as the e-mail system, MSU’s Web site, or the news media. Facebook would not be the first place a majority of students check for information.
On the same note, the current system has flaws as well, which could be improved by using Facebook. Facebook could be hacked but so could the text and e-mail lists of students, and the other options would hold much more value to marketing departments.
Also, with the novelty of Facebook, anything bad that happens would easily make the news, just as issues with the site have before. With that consequence weighing on the shoulders of the Web site, they would probably take extra interest in helping MSU keep the data secure.
If the university’s primary concern is students’ safety, it would be a wise move to add a Facebook messaging system to its alerting process as just one of many tools in the drawer.
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