If there’s an emergency on campus, Alert Carolina will tell you about it. But when? The timeliness of Alert Carolina’s updates has been a cause of concern for students and community members.

But this summer, UNC’s Department of Public Safety, or DPS, is introducing a “One Button” system. This new approach automates all the alerts – the texts, emails, tweets and website updates – at the touch of a button.

“What this new technology allows us to do is to set all of those in motion and have them all activated within a couple of minutes,” said Randy Young, the spokesperson for DPS.

Young said this new, one-touch alert system has turned a 15 minute process into a three minute one. Once the button is pushed, the automation sends out predetermined messages to all the same distribution points that in the past, would have been done manually.

“One of the ways we’ve found efficiency is by having pre-worded messages. They at least get the basic information about what the scenario is, so people can take action immediately.”

These pre-worded messages alert the community of three possible emergencies – an armed and dangerous person, a tornado or storm, or a fire or toxic release. While the message doesn’t include details of the situation, Young says the goal is to alert people quickly.

“The paramount message that we put out is to get to safety. The who’s, what’s and why’s we would certainly fill in with due haste, but we want to make sure that folks are safe first.”

Young says the system will continue to evolve as technology improves.

“This is not a destination, it is just one project in an ongoing evolution of this messaging.”

DPS plans to implement the new system by the start of the school year.

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