Students receive messages of possible hazards
Tesla Bethel
Lantern Staff
BEARS alerts students for all the dangerous “what ifs”
The BEARS system or Butler Emergency Alert Reporting System has been at Butler for years and will continue to improve with the proper funding. Chief Tim Bryan of Butler’s Public Safety spoke in depth about the system. The system only reports on emergency situations such as severe weather, an active killer, cancelled classes or other threats to the student body. Now tornados happen frequently in Kansas, and some might not be too thrilled to get a text message at three a.m. talking about the warning. The good news is that there are two separate systems to avoid such an issue. In instances following after class hours then the notification of the emergency will be sent to the Butler students that live on campus, not the commuters.
The system is based off of the company Rave, which is the base line for a lot of colleges. This allows Butler to send out a notification not only through text message, but social media as well including Twitter and Facebook. In some cases, calls are sent out instead of text messages, and in those instances you will hear a pre-recorded message. In instances that have escalated and need multiple updates, Chief Brian or another of the four individuals authorized to send these alerts can speak personally on the matter.
The system is opt out, meaning that if you are an incoming freshman and gave your cell number to the Registrar’s Office, then you are already enrolled into the system. However, this is only a recent change in the last three months, so if you are a sophomore and aren’t already signed up but would like the alerts you just have to sign up yourself, and many might not know how. Such as sophomore Hayli Poulus, who would sign up if given the information on how. All one has to do is go to Pipeline or go to the Registrar’s Office to make sure to give your cell phone number, not your home phone; otherwise, it will not register, and you will not get the notifications.
However, this system is not perfect. Butler is behind other colleges in regards to having the system advance. For instance, other colleges have a date timer, so if an individual goes on a date with a new person and a timer runs out before it is stopped, then campus police are automatically notified, and come to check on the person. There have also been concerns about the timeliness of the system.
Chief Bryan explained a few of the drawbacks of the current system.
“We need to improve audio messaging for blind population and visual messaging for deaf population,” Chief Bryan said. “But reaching out to the disabled population in a better way is one of my main concerns.”
There is an expected additional revenue, and with the safety of the students as a top priority of administrators, there is a chance the funding will go towards improving the system, as well as the cameras around campus. With proper funding safety would increase while criminal activities on campus would decrease with the protection of the public safety staff.