McNeese State University has integrated its emergency notification services to ensure that the campus community receives alerts within minutes of an incident or urgent announcement, according to university officials. The newest form of technology, provided by the FirstCall Interactive Network, allows university officials to contact any number of people within minutes with a pre-recorded or emergency message using only a telephone or Internet-accessible computer.

"The FirstCall system is an enhancement to McNeese’s current emergency notification system," MSU President Robert Hebert said. "FirstCall will allow us to send multiple messages to students and employees using landline and cell phones, email and text messaging."

"Safety is vital for universities across the nation, and McNeese is certainly no exception," said Cinnamon Salvador, chief of university police. "We work continuously to make sure that we are aware of the newest available technologies for campus and community safety, and we plan to utilize as much of that technology as possible."

According to Salvador, the FirstCall Interactive Network is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to assist with any all and all activations of the system. FirstCall is service-based, which means there is no hardware or software for the university to maintain.

Anyone with a McNeese email account can register multiple phone numbers and a secondary email address for the alert system. "Students can also include a phone number for their parents," Hebert said.

To register for FirstCall notification, members of the campus community can visit the McNeese home page at www.mcneese.edu and click on the Register Now First Call button. Registration is free and contact information is used for emergency purposes only, according to Salvador.

"FirstCall can be accessed by phone anywhere, or from a company computer. There are no phone lines to maintain and the notification service is virtually immediate," Salvador said. "The company itself also has numerous safeguards in place, including several back-up data sites, to ensure that their system will not go down. Obviously, accessibility and reliability is the main concern with emergency notification. McNeese believes that FirstCall offers the most reliable service available."

"The information provided through FirstCall will not be shared with any other agencies and is designed only for emergency notification. We urge students, faculty and staff to enroll immediately so they can be alerted to any urgencies on campus," Candace Townsend, director of the office of public information and communications, said. "The university wants as much information possible about how to reach each of its students to make certain that we can get in touch with them at a potentially crucial time."

Once an emergency notification is made through FirstCall, the administrator can view the results to make sure that proper procedures are followed. "This will allow us to have real time feedback on the number of email messages sent, land lines contacted and cell numbers contacted, Townsend said.

"We were using a notification method provided by the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office," Townsend said. FirstCall will replace that system and it offers more customization features. "The Jeff Davis system worked particularly well to convey weather related information, but FirstCall will allow us to access more contact points for students and employees."

McNeese’s adoption of the integrated notification system is part of a statewide initiative prompted by the Louisiana Board of Regents and supported by the University of Louisiana System. The Board of Regents is covering the costs for this system for every public campus in the state for the next three years.