C of C buying emergency system

The College of Charleston has signed an agreement to buy a $30,000 emergency communication system for events such as the three-hour bomb scare Sept. 21.

Some parents and students complained that they were not adequately informed during the scare that closed Calhoun Street between King and Coming streets, shut down some classrooms and administration buildings and restricted access to some dorms.

Connect-ED Communication Service will provide a new system capable of reaching faculty, students and staff within minutes of a campus crisis. The service will be implemented with limited capabilities this month, with testing in phases throughout the fall. It is expected to be fully functional by the end of 2007, the college said Monday.

With the new system, the college will be able to communicate through voice messages to home, work and cell phones, text messages to cell phones, written messages to e-mail accounts and messages to teletypewriters and telecommunication devices for the hearing impaired.

"This new emergency notification system will significantly enhance our ability

to maintain a learning environment in which students feel safe, secure and comfortable," said Victor Wilson, executive vice president for student affairs.

The college has 9,800 undergraduates, 1,400 graduate students and 1,800 employees. It began looking at a new emergency communications system in late spring as universities across the country examined their crisis communications in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings in April that resulted in the deaths of 27 students and five faculty members, said Mike Haskins, executive vice president for external relations.

"The process for acquiring this system was well under way when this incident (bomb scare) happened. The incident itself didn't spur any change," Haskins said.

The Citadel has said that within three years it plans to have a new emergency communication system using school-issued cell phones to receive voice and text messages.

This fall, Charleston Southern University implemented a new system that can send a message within minutes to the school's 3,500 students, faculty and staff by phone, pager number and e-mail.

At about 9 a.m. Sept. 21, a College of Charleston professor found a suspicious-looking hard-shell briefcase wired on the inside with batteries and magnets that connected by wires to an open cell phone on the outside. The professor alerted police, who called in the bomb squad.

The college relied on emergency messages sent to student e-mail addresses and posted at the campus Web site. Faculty and staff spread the word about what was going on.

The bomb squad determined that the device was not an explosive.

It was found next to a Calhoun Street sidewalk in the front of the AT&T building. The treasurer's office, the health center, Kinko's and Starbucks were shuttered. Classes were canceled in the BellSouth building and Calhoun Annex.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@post andcourier.com.