Alfredo Garcia
Lantern Staff
The Grizzlies Safe app, set to launch on Tuesday, Oct. 9 for faculty and staff, will replace BEARS alert. The app will be fully available sometime in December to everyone, according to Chief of Police Jason Kenney.
Kenney thought of the idea of the app after seeing larger colleges use a similar app. Although the Grizzles Safe app is similar to apps that other colleges use, Vice President of Information Technology Bill Young worked with AppArmor to make it unique to Butler. The app will feature seven categories of help and assistance.
“We can notify every Butler faculty, staff and student in a matter of seconds” Vice President of Student Services Bill Rinkenbaugh said.
Development on the app began in July, and this same month, it was up and sending messages. Young said that once the app is fully released to faculty, staff and students, there will be automatic updates.
The Grizzlies Safe app will offer various features such as: Mobile Blue Light, which will allow students to send their locations to campus police in case of an emergency and emergency plans in cases of tornadoes, fires or active shooters. Videos will feature exit routes for users to follow to escape fires and other emergencies.
“[In case of an active shooter,] I can hit a button, and I can lock every door in this campus,” Kenney said.
Another feature of the app will include Friend Walk. Users can turn their Phones into a camera, which will allow campus police to watch users if they are feeling unsafe. The campus police will be able to see where a user is on a map.
The Grizzlies Safe app will also offer counselor reservations if users need to speak with someone. Peer support, health counseling and a hotline for sexual assault will be available.
“[There are] 1-800 numbers… so you’re not even going to be talking to anyone in Kansas,” Kenney said.
The Grizzlies Safe app is going to be notification-centered, and the app will integrate the RAVE system, which will notify students of weather and emergencies. The app will also update social media in case of emergencies, and the emergency notification in the app will be made in red.
“We can notify every Butler faculty, staff and student in a matter of seconds,” Rinkenbaugh said. “A test on Monday, Sept. 17 at 1:21:09 p.m., and the notification hit all 15,000 faculty and staff emails at 1:21:23 p.m.
Many faculty, staff and students, including Young, Kenney and Rinkenbaugh, agree that an app like Grizzlies Safe helps the campus community feel more safe.
“All in the palm of your hands” Young, Kenney and Rinkenbaugh agreed.
