The University has begun the process of implementing an Emergency Mass Notification System that will alert members of the Stanford community to emergency situations via simultaneous email, voice and text messages. Since April 16, all Axess users have been required to submit their contact information and information for an emergency contact before accessing their accounts.

“The system will ensure that information is delivered as quickly as possible directly to an individual . . . during incidents in which senior administrators determine that the community, or a portion of the community, is in imminent danger,” the University said in an April 14 press release.

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman informed students of the Axess contact information requirement in an email sent on April 11.

When last revised in 2003, the University’s Campus Emergency Plan included no mechanism for the extensive dissemination of emergency information to Stanford community members. The new emergency notification system will serve that function.

The system is designed to send email notifications, as well as voice and text messages, to members of the campus community. The system will be activated only “in the event of a serious emergency” and at the discretion of the University President, according to Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Jennie Nicolayev.

Nicolayev cited Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech shootings of one year ago and global concerns over a potential avian flu epidemic as reasons for the introduction of the system.

Hurricane Katrina struck and devastated the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in August 2005. On April 16, 2007 a disturbed undergraduate killed 32 other students and himself at Virginia Tech in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

“Many offices on campus, including Student Affairs, have been focused on emergency preparedness for many years now,” said Nicolayev in an email to The Daily.

In the past year, many colleges and universities across the nation have implemented similar emergency alert systems.

Stanford’s system was purchased from an outside vendor. The University declined to comment regarding the cost of the system, which Nicolayev characterized as “complex and multi-faceted.”

“I’m sure we all hope that we never have reason to use it,” she said.