Hamilton College performed the first test of a campus-wide emergency communication system on Thursday. The system delivered a test voice message to campus landline phones, student, faculty, administrator and staff cell phones and faculty, administrator and staff home telephones. It also sent an e-mail message to the entire campus community.
Provided by technology company NTI Group, the system can be programmed to deliver a recorded voice message to any landline and cell phone, as well as to send e-mail messages and text messages. The test identified some areas for improvement in handling calls to the campus phone system, and in working effectively with certain cell phone providers.
Vice President for Information Technology David Smallen calls the system, "a valuable component to an overall communication strategy in the case of an emergency."
Further tests to fine-tune the system's performance will continue throughout this semester.
