Longwood University begins the year with a brand new alert system called E2Campus. This alert system is not only available to Longwood University students, but also available to Farmville and Prince Edward communities.
Media Specialist Mathew McWilliams stated, “The new alert system is an improvement and upgrade to the last one. Whenever there is a weather emergency, campus emergency or anything where the campus needs to be notified, an alert will be sent out to all students, faculty and staff.”
According to the New Alert System page on Longwood University’s website, the alert system already has email addresses from students and faculty and staff, but does not have mobile phone numbers.
Sergeant of Public Safety Ray Ostrander stated that anyone is able to sign up for the alerts by accessing the e2campus website at www.e2campus. net/my/longwood/ and clicking the “Create New Account” tab.
McWilliams stated, “It allows everyone to go in and add mobile phone numbers, so you can get alerts right on your phone. Also, parents can join in, as well as community members, family and pretty much anyone.”
McWilliams added that phone numbers may be added into groups. He gave an example of how this might work, saying, “My office is in Lancaster, and I have joined the Lancaster Hall group. If something happened, and they had to close Lancaster, then everyone in that specific group would receive an alert. Other people on campus wouldn’t receive the alert since it does not affect them.”
McWilliams emphasized on the importance the service in that it allows contact with students, faculty and staff in a short period of time in a worse case scenario.
“Right now, we only have the email addresses to send the alert to, so it’s super critical that students and parents add there phone numbers in,” McWilliams said.
In comparison to the old alert system, Ostrander stated that the change was due to issues with the previous vendor and continued rising maintenance costs.
Ostrander said, “We looked at other universities and found that VCU [Virginia Commonwealth University] was using E2Campus, and they were happy with their customer support and the product in general.”
He further stated, "This system will give us the flexibility in the future with additional components to help enhance our emergency notification system."
McWilliams stated that the Longwood University Police Department and Longwood University chose to upgrade to E2Campus to provide a better service to the Longwood, Farmville and Prince Edward communities.
McWilliams said, “Now with the new alert system, there is greater opportunity you will get contacted, being that you can add email addresses and phone numbers and kind of control what messages you get.”
For more Information about E2Campus, you can get in contact with Matthew McWilliams by his email mcwilliamsmj@longwood.edu or you can get in contact with Ray Ostrander at ostranderr@ longwood.edu. Furthermore, you can also visit ww2013releases_49382.htmw.longwood.edu/ for more information about the alert system in general.
