A day after a shooting at Virginia Tech left 33 dead, State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Bellefonte, said he'll unveil a resolution today requesting universities statewide to have an effective system in place to alert students of potential threats -- and he wants to use Penn State as a model.
Conklin said yesterday he wants to draw upon and refine Penn State's emergency notification system -- which makes use of PSUTXT, a free text messaging service from the university, and e-mail -- as a template for a statewide alarm system.
"That's my goal, to get this in place at every college and university in the state," said Conklin, who will officially announce the resolution, which already has 40 co-sponsors, at a 10:30 a.m. press conference today at the State Capitol.
Conklin, who has a 20-year-old son at Lock Haven University, said he spoke with Penn State President Graham Spanier about the resolution yesterday.
"I see all of you [college students] as my sons there, and I see this tragedy happening, and I don't want to see that happen again," Conklin said.
Spanier released a statement yesterday assuring that "extensive efforts are taken to promote a safe and secure place for living and learning," on the Penn State campus.
"During this time of concern, I want to let the Penn State community know that we have detailed emergency plans in place, which we update regularly," Spanier wrote. "At the University Park campus, we have a full-time emergency coordinator who we share with the Centre Region to assure collaboration."
Spanier also wrote that members of his senior management staff meet with police, fire, ambulance, emergency and communication officials several times a year "to conduct exercises we all hope never become a reality."
Yesterday, Penn State urged students to sign up for PSUTXT to receive emergency information, and Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said more than 100 new subscribers have registered in the last 24 hours.
Mountz said if a situation occurred at Penn State similar to what happened Monday morning at Virginia Tech, PSUTXT would be one method of communication used to alert the Penn State community.
"It would be used in that sort of situation, yes," she said. "It's one of many various tools we'd use to put information out because there is no single way to communicate information to everyone, but this is one tool we'd use."
Mountz, who said she sends out the majority of text messages on PSUTXT, added that Penn State "wouldn't rely solely on it."
"We typically don't have hundreds signing up each
day," she said. "When people have emergency information on their minds, they look to the best way they can get it."
Thus far, PSUTXT has been primarily used to alert students of class cancellations and parking restrictions because of heavy snowfall.
Joey Mays (senior-meteorology) said he signed up for PSUTXT last fall and thinks it would be useful in an emergency situation because text messaging is a quick way to access people.
"If something like that happened, I think it'd be quite useful to alert everyone quickly," he said.
Dan Saltsman (senior-civil engineering) said he would "definitely" sign up for PSUTXT in light of the Virginia Tech killings.
"It sounds like a great idea, especially with one of the most horrific events in our country," he said. "If they had an alert like this, who knows how many lives could have been saved?"
Vasil Dergunov (junior-international relations) said he was not signed up for PSUTXT. He said he wasn't sure if he would sign up for it, saying it depended on the situation.
"It could cause more chaos and do more harm," he said.
Dergunov said he thought PSUTXT would be effective if it were tested in an emergency situation.
According to Penn State Live, students can sign up for PSUTXT at newswires.psu.edu. While the service is free of charge, standard text messaging rates apply.
-- Collegian staff writer Kathleen Haughney contributed to this report
