Is your university prepared to issue "immediate" emergency notifications required by new higher ed law?
08.20.2008
Rave Wireless Extends Its "Rave Alert Challenge" to Help Universities Comply with New Law and Ensure They Have the Most Reliable, High-Performance Emergency Notification Solution
Framingham, MA - Rave Wireless, Inc. today applauded Congress and President Bush for recognizing the critical role that reliable, high-performing "electronic and cellular communication" emergency notification systems play in campus safety. The new Higher Education Act (HR-4137) states that higher education institutions must have procedures to "immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or staff occurring on the campus," among other provisions. Architected and built from the ground up to provide reliable alerting via text message, email, recorded voice message and/or RSS feeds, Rave Alert is being used by universities nationwide to communicate urgent messages to entire campus communities or targeted groups of individuals.
To help universities comply with the new law, Rave Wireless today announced it will extend its "Rave Alert Challenge" through the end of 2008, enabling any U.S. college or university to activate the system, add users and conduct a performance test same-day. The Rave Alert Challenge is designed to allow institutions to take a complimentary test drive of Rave Alert to compare its performance to that of other systems. To date, every institution that has taken the Rave Alert Challenge has decided to switch to Rave Alert. Interested parties may apply to participate by completing the form at http://www.ravewireless.com/contact.
Administrators at colleges and universities nationwide using Rave, such as American University, Colorado State University, Indiana State University, Kent State University (OH), Quinnipiac University, University of Louisville (KY), and University of South Florida have been very pleased with the ease-of-use, reliability and performance of Rave Alert. Some universities previously dissatisfied with their alerting provider have recently switched to Rave, in a trend that signals greater market awareness of and appreciation for the reliability and performance variables in emergency notification systems.
"Some of the colleges and universities that scrambled to deploy alerting systems following the Virginia Tech tragedy have learned through public failures that all alerting systems are not created equal," says Raju Rishi, chief strategy officer and co-founder, Rave Wireless, Inc. "As should be expected when it comes to saving students' lives, the new law stresses that alerting failures will no longer be tolerated. Fortunately, with Rave Alert it's simple and easy for universities to keep their campus communities safer."
How to Assess if Your University is Vulnerable
Higher education institutions assessing possible vulnerabilities stemming from the new emergency response law can use the Rave Alert capabilities as a guideline for a best-of-breed alerting system:
- Is your emergency notification system multi-modal, including capabilities for text, email, recorded voice and RSS messaging?
- Does your alerting system use multiple SMPP aggregators and redundant data centers?
- Does your alerting system provide reporting of alert delivery and constant monitoring of text delivery to phones on all major cellular providers?
- Is your alerting system capable of bulk-loading user information and keeping that information up-to-date to ensure all (or most of the) members of your campus community are registered to receive alerts?
New University Requirements for Missing Students
The newly signed law also requires higher education institutions put into place procedures to manage situations in which students are reported missing. Colleges and universities can take an even more proactive approach than the law requires by further leveraging students' mobile phones to ensure the personal safety of all students, faculty and staff. Rave Guardian is a breakthrough technology that transforms students' mobile phones into personal safety devices. When the student feels unsafe, for example while walking across a dark campus late at night, he/she can activate Rave Guardian from his/her mobile phone, automatically sending his/her picture, mobile number and personal information to campus police. Rave Guardian can even display the GPS location of students on a campus map, helping campus police respond faster and more effectively to students who need help. By activating Rave Guardian for a direct connection to campus security, students can feel safe and protected at all times.
About Rave Wireless
Rave Wireless is the leading provider of safety applications for mobile users. Rave builds, sells and supports the award-winning Rave Alert and Rave Guardian products that deliver the only two-way safety solution complete with inbound and outbound emergency alerting. Rave builds upon its strong foundation in mobile phone safety products to deliver Rave Campus, a complete suite of academic, safety, community and social applications specially designed for students' mobile phones. Colleges and universities nationwide rely on Rave Wireless and have won the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award and the Campus Technology Innovators Award for their Rave implementations. Rave Wireless is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, Sigma Partners, and RRE Ventures.