News

Virginia Colleges Implement e2Campus Emergency Notification System Before State Mandated Deadline of January 1, 2009

LEESBURG, VA – November 20, 2008 – Omnilert®, LLC today announced that several Virginia colleges and universities have recently implemented the e2Campus® emergency notification system well before the Virginia mandated deadline of January 1, 2009. The Commonwealth of Virginia passed Senate Bill Number 538 that requires an emergency notification system at every public institution of higher education by January 1, 2009.

Schools that have implemented an e2Campus emergency notification system since the bill’s passage include Bridgewater College, Christendom College, Eastern Mennonite University, Hollins University, Randolph-Macon College, and Virginia Intermont College.

“We conducted a thorough analysis of emergency notification providers and chose e2Campus because they are the most reliable,” said Carol Reed, Chief Information Officer at Hollins University. “Our main focus is to ensure our students are notified immediately of an emergency on campus. We have performed numerous onsite tests of e2Campus, which have all been extremely successful.”

“Although we’re not a public institution, we wanted to implement an ENS before the deadline at the end of this year. If you are a public college or university in Virginia without an ENS, then I would recommend e2Campus because it can be up and running in a day, well before the deadline. We’re now looking into expanding e2Campus’ reach by adding Alertus beacons around campus to notify people not already plugged into the cell phone alerts,” continued Reed.

About Virginia Senate Bill No. 538
SENATE BILL NO. 538 was approved on February 7, 2008 and is a BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chapter 1 of Title 23 a section numbered 23-9.2:9, relating to the establishment of a first warning notification and emergency broadcast system at every public institution of higher education.

23-9.2:11. First warning and emergency notification system required.

By January 1, 2009, the governing boards of each public institution of higher education shall establish a comprehensive, prompt, and reliable first warning notification and emergency broadcast system for their students, faculty, and staff, both on and off campus. Such system shall be activated in the case of an emergency and may rely on website announcements; email notices; phone, cellular phone, and text messages; alert lines; public address systems; and other means of communication. In addition, each institution shall designate individuals authorized to activate the warning system and provide such individuals with appropriate training for its use.

About e2Campus
Used by more than 500 campuses around the country, e2Campus is the Tier-1 multimodal emergency notification network that enables school officials to self-administer and send time-sensitive messages for a fraction of the cost and complexity of existing notification solutions. There is no traditional software to install, no hardware to buy and no additional phone lines needed. A school can set up a secure notification network in minutes to send routine, urgent or emergency notifications to their entire campus community or smaller groups, such as branch campuses, residence halls, or staff-only. e2Campus instantly and simultaneously sends multimodal alerts to a subscriber's mobile phone (via SMS text message), landline phone (via voice message), e-mail accounts, and RSS reader, plus 3rd party campus infrastructure such as loudspeakers, fire/security systems, digital signage, alert beacons, Facebook Pages, Twitter Account, and relevant school Web pages. To learn more, visit http://www.e2Campus.com.

About Omnilert
Omnilert, LLC is leading the way in multimodal mass communications for sending time-sensitive information to large groups of people. The self-service, Web-based system enables a single person to communicate timely information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device. It is ideal for announcing school closings, game cancellations, weather warnings, terrorist alerts, and marketing promotions. Omnilert’s multimodal network sends content directly to a mobile phone (SMS), traditional phone (voice), e-mail address, Web page, RSS reader, Facebook Page, Twitter account, digital sign, alert beacon, or loudspeaker. Omnilert solutions are sold under the names e2Campus, Amerilert, RainedOut and through resellers. The privately held company is headquartered in Leesburg, Va., and at http://www.omnilert.com online.

Omnilert, e2Campus, Amerilert & RainedOut are trademarks of Omnilert, LLC. All other trademarks, trade names, or company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective owners.

.