UH plans to introduce an emergency text messaging system that can be used to alert students during life-and-death situations, such as school shootings, according to Dan Nakaso’s article in the Advertiser today.

Emails were recently sent to 50,000 students in the 10-campus system encouraging them to sign up for the special text messaging.

Campus officials previously used email to communicate with students during emergencies, such as an October incident in which a 46-year-old man was arrested for threatening to shoot 30 students at UH-Manoa.

During the Feb. 14 shooting at Northern Illinois, campus officials sent students email and voicemail alerts, according to this article from the AP. The school did not have text messaging alerts.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville recently introduced text alerts along with several other universities across the country. Announcements at SIUE are also broadcast through a speaker system on the 2,660-acre campus.

But the AP article also notes that students at many campuses with text message alert systems have been slow to embrace the program, citing “feelings of invincibility and reluctance to give out personal information.”

I’m sure it’s probably also related to questions about the effectiveness of text message alerts. UH students first have to register for the service and those without unlimited messaging will have to pay for any emergency texts. UH officials said in the article that they expect only 10 percent of students to sign up.

The emergency texting system is designed to do what email can’t, that is, get in touch with students when they’re on the go, walking around campus or sitting in class. But when I was in college, I also almost never took my cell phone to class since I had profs who were notorious for kicking students out of the room if a cell ring disturbed their lectures. So I either left my phone in my room or turned it off during the day unless I was expecting a call.

UH students can check this site for emergency status updates and to register for the new text messaging system.