On Wednesday, September 17, the University conducted its third live test of the Tufts Emergency Alert System. During the course of the test, we issued 46,478 messages to 15,806 individuals.
While the Tufts community was most aware of the text messages, emails and phone calls, the university also exercised several other elements of crisis communications. Public Safety, University Relations and the President's Office practiced internal notification procedures, and Web Communications posted test messages to the university website, the Tufts Today network of 15 infoscreens, and 617-627-INFO (4636). In an actual emergency, you should refer to these resources for additional information following an emergency alert.
| SMS Text Messages | ||
| March 2008 | September 2008 | |
| Number of SMS messages sent | 8,535 | 8,929 |
| Time required to send SMS messages | 4 minutes | 4 minutes |
| SMS message throughput | 2,133/min | 2,232/min |
| Phone Calls | ||
| March 2008 | September 2008 | |
| Number of phone calls by system | 16,782 | 17,309 |
| Time to complete first phone call attempt | 4 minutes | 5 minutes |
Though our three live tests of the system have been successful, it is important to stress that we cannot rely on technology alone to spread word of a crisis.
- Although the Tufts Emergency Alert System provides a powerful mechanism for issuing thousands of alert messages within a short time frame, it could take an extended time to complete the process of sending a message to every single contact point in our system.
- Despite the sophistication of the technology used for the Tufts Emergency Alert System, it may not be possible to successfully contact every device. External factors, which are beyond our control, prevent some messages from reaching their intended destinations.
- Because some messages will be delivered more quickly than others, and some may not be successfully transmitted due to external factors, it is essential that each member of the community registers multiple points of contact in the system. The more ways we have to alert each person, the more effective the system will be.
Word of mouth communications, therefore, play a critical role in the university's crisis communications strategy. Within three minutes of the start of the test, the Tufts Emergency Alert System sent 40,000 text messages, emails and phone calls. If each person who receives an alert during that initial span passes word to the colleagues and classmates around them, we will be able to spread the message extremely quickly and efficiently.
Haven’t registered to receive Tufts Emergency Alerts?
Visit publicsafety.tufts.edu/emergency for more information about how to register your emergency contact information.
