School shootings have brought safety awareness throughout the country’s campuses, and Bakersfield College is one of those campuses.
BCAlert is part of the new notification system that alerts BC students and faculty about any nature, human or health scares that cause a campus to close.
Amber Chiang, director of Marketing and Public Relations, mentioned that Cerro Coso and Porterville colleges would also use this new system. “You cannot keep people who want to do something bad, only try to prevent it,” said Chiang. “But we could try to keep it safe by being ready.”
The Connect-ED, known as BCAlert on campus, is a service provided by Blackboard Connect Inc. that sends messages through text, e-mail adresses, PDAs, pagers, TTY/TDD and voicemails. BCAlert will notify any student or faculty about any emergency that is occurring on campus.
“The Columbine shooting was a wakeup call,” said Chiang. “When Virginia Tech happened, I received a lot of calls asking what I had planned for our safety.”
Each emergency will have its own response, and BCAlert will inform students or faculty to stay away from or stay on campus. Students will receive a message by text or voicemail, depending on the student’s requests. No messages will be sent unless it is considered an emergency.
When new students do their registration to sign up for classes, they will see a message about the BCAlert, and it will ask them to fill out contact information. This contact information will be added to the BCAlert system to use in case of an emergency. “Everybody has to see that message because they have to go through this page, but they will only see this message once,” said Chiang. Students are encouraged to pay attention when registering to be put automatically in the BCAlert system. Current students have been added to the system, and the current contact information will be used when an emergency happens. If students wish to update their information, they may do so when they register for a new semester. Again, students will only be notified when an emergency occurs.
Because BC has other campuses in Kern County like the Delano Campus and Stockdale, students who go to the main campus, for example, will not get an emergency message if Delano Campus has an emergency.
“All messages will be relevant to the campus,” said Chiang. “Nobody is going to care if it has nothing to do with their campus.”
According to a press release, the following modes of communication will be used: voice messages to home phones, work phones, cell phones and e-mails. Text messages to cell phones, PDAs, networked digital signage and other text devices. Text messages to e-mail. Messages to TTY/TDD receiving devices for the hearing impaired.
An announcement was made on April 21 to BC. Fliers and e-mails will be distributed with more information about the program. According to a press release “The recent onset of emergency situations – from natural disasters to health scares to the threats of violence – sheds light on the fact that we must always be fully prepared,” said Greg Chamberlain, president of BC. Joann Clark, director of Information and Development at Cerro Coso, said that they might get emergency messages because of the earthquakes that are in the area. Clark is in charge of their CCAlert system at CC, and Chiang is in charge of the BCAlert system. “CCAlert is a fantastic idea and service for students. It’s a fast and efficient way to communicate.”