News

De Pere college turns to tech for safety

By Nancy Barthel
Compass Correspondent

	TESTING SAFETY: Billy Falk, Student Government president, and Angie Runingen demonstrate St. Norbert College's emergency alert system, Connect-ED. (Rick Evans photo)

DE PERE -- Emergency response procedures have long been a concern to Norbertine-sponsored St. Norbert College. This concern was heightened following last April 17's deadly killing spree at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

This fall, the college implemented a new emergency technology service called Connect-ED, according to Norbertine Fr. Jay Fostner, vice president for Mission and Heritage and co-chairperson of the Emergency Task Force Committee at St. Norbert College. Fr. Fostner co-chairs the committee with Eileen Janke, vice president for Business and Finance.

The new emergency system allows college administrators to contact large numbers of students and staff quickly through multiple electronic technologies.

In case of an emergency on or near campus, St. Norbert College administrators will voice and/or text a message that will be sent out through the Connect-ED system. Those who are registered will receive the message almost immediately.

All students, faculty and staff can register up to six telephone numbers or e-mail addresses for emergency notifications. Notification can be delivered via cell-phone, land-line, e-mail, PDA, and/or text message.

Notifications will be limited to emergencies, including such things as weather alerts, building concerns, intruders or potential pandemics. The system will also be tested occasionally.

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Cost of the Connect-ED system is affordable, said Fr. Fostner, at $3 per community member. There are about 2,500 students and faculty at St. Norbert College, meaning the total cost for the emergency alert system is about $7,500. The cost is not being passed on to students, he said.

Student Government president Billy Falk said among the six telephone numbers he registered was his parents' home number in Beaver Dam. "In three years nothing has really happened here" in terms of a real emergency, said Falk, a senior.

But, he added, the prayer vigil held at the St. Norbert campus after the Virginia Tech shootings drove home the point that it's important to be prepared in the event of an emergency. "I feel much more comfortable" having the Connect-Ed system in place, he said.

St. Norbert student Angie Runingen, who serves as the technology chairperson with Student Government, agrees. "I think it's really a great idea. Hopefully it doesn't have to be used. Just knowing that it's there can put some people at ease," she said.

Prior to the Virginia Tech shootings, St. Norbert College was already considering upgrading its emergency notification system from simply an e-mail notice to students and staff to something much more immediate. "We were looking at a number of different systems and we were getting ready to pick a system shortly before the Virginia Tech incident," said Fr. Fostner.

Long in place at St. Norbert College has been the "emergency preparedness binder." It's in the hands of 125 key people on campus and provides quick information on how to handle any myriad of emergency situations that could come up, from a chemical spill, death of a student, or intruder on campus to building emergencies and personal safety issues. "Every time something happens we review, 'How did it go?'" he said.

Fr. Fostner - who has a doctorate in psychology and also teaches psychology at the college - added that many people on campus are trained to watch for difficulties students might be having and provide them with the assistance they may need.

"Sometimes we have students who won't reach out for help," he said.

Beyond that, each week the "30-Minute Group" meets, said Fr. Fostner. It's a gathering of key people on campus who keep tabs on students struggling with campus life who work together to find solutions for these students. "That's one of the reasons people are paying the tuition to come here," he said, referring to St. Norbert as a close-knit community.

St. Norbert's efforts to maintain a safe learning environment has not gone unnoticed. The college was among 16 Wisconsin private and public colleges highlighted for their "best practice criteria" in an interim report issued Aug. 15 by Gov. Jim Doyle's Task Force on Campus Safety.

The task force was formed by Doyle in the wake of the April 2007 shootings that left 32 people dead on the Virginia Tech campus. The interim report outlines criteria in four critical areas of campus safety - prevention, intervention, response and post-incident activities - and includes information on an appropriate response to students exhibiting strange or threatening behavior.

A final report is expected Nov. 1.

Included in the report is the "best practice criteria" of St. Norbert's Freshman Health History Program. When a physical or mental health issue is identified in a student, that student is invited to the Student Health Center to meet with a healthcare provider. Although this is a voluntary program, St. Norbert College reported to the Task Force on Campus Safety that 70 percent of students invited make the visit to the Student Health Center. Students then receive advice and support on coping with campus life.

The freshman health history program - though it speaks to both physical and mental health issues - is right in line with one of the main focuses of the interim report which includes best practice criteria and current practices from the field relating to mental health services, access to mental health treatment and responses to students or staff exhibiting threatening behavior.

The task force stressed the importance of reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and mental health services.  "While working to provide those with mental illness the services they need to succeed, we must look beyond tendencies to stigmatize and understand that threats to campus safety are much more likely to flow from other sources, for example, from alcohol and drug abuse," the report recommends.

To see the entire copy of the interim report from the Governor's Task Force on Campus Safety, see www.OJA.wi.gov/Campus_Safety.