Colgate University has recently introduced a new emergency alert system that is able to send campus-wide notifications to the e-mail addresses, cell phones and land lines of members of the Colgate community. This system is one of the various ready-made security applications developed by Rave Wireless. The system is called Rave Alert, but has been dubbed Colgate Alert by the administration. The new system will be capable of sending 24,000 text messages and 8,000 voice messages per minute in case of an emergency.  

Rave Wireless has won multiple awards for the technology, including the 2009 International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry, Dedicated to Expanding the Wireless Frontier (CTIA) and Emerging Technology Award for Public Safety. Rave has also been implemented in various universities across the country.

The old security system, “e2Campus,” was replaced this year with the new Colgate Alert system because it was not able to automatically download contact information from the Colgate database. e2Campus required students to opt-in and register themselves in the system on an individual basis and required the individual students to be responsible for updating personal information.

As a result, a number of students were left out of the alert system and unable to receive important notifications due to lack of self-registration. The new Colgate Alert system will be directly connected to the already established university contact information database and will routinely be updated with current contact information.

Although the new messaging service will have access to Colgate records, Director of Campus Safety William Ferguson encourages students to take a moment to access the service to verify contact information and choose their notification preferences.

“You can enter up to three e-mail addresses, three mobile phone numbers and three voice only telephone numbers,” Ferguson said.

The system can be accessed via the Colgate Portal and is free of cost for students.