Sparked by last April’s shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Office of University Safety launched a new system to help alert students, faculty and staff during campus emergencies.

Recipients will be informed by text, e-mail and phone messages in the event of school closing and delays, severe weather and other campus emergencies.

While enrollment in the new program – the Georgetown Emergency Notification System – is voluntary, about 3,000 people have registered since the system opened Sunday. Individuals can register for the new service online through Student Access.

The service is run through the NTI Group, a company specializing in spreading critical information during emergency situations, which implements a series of internal reviews and audits to assure that a client’s information remains secure.

Although the incident at Virginia Tech, which left 33 students dead, accelerated the university’s efforts to put the system in place, Tyler Spalding (SFS ’08), a member of the Student Safety Advisory Board who helped develop the new system, said that GENS will be utilized for a range of different safety incidents.

“It’s not just if there’s a shooting on campus,” Spalding said. “In terms of safety in general, Virginia Tech showed there were other ways in which we could make information more available and thus make students feel safer on campus.”

The new notifications will not replace the university’s existing system, but will act to enhance previous methods of communication, which include broadcast e-mail and voicemail, fire alarms, the campus alert system, cable TV banner override, building and floor marshals, and resident assistants.

“In the case of a campus emergency, we will use multiple avenues of communication in order to provide the best coverage,” Peter Luger, director of operations at the Office of University Safety, said. “We will continue to make improvements to this system and the other tools for emergency communication.”

But some have raised concerns about the new program, including the privacy of student information, Max O’Neill (COL ’08), another SSAB member, said.

“I was reassured all numbers will be kept confidential and won’t be used against students in any way,” he said.

Because of Georgetown’s limited cell phone tower coverage, the use of cell phone calls will be more limited and dependant upon the intensity of the emergency.

According to O’Neill, the system will be tested September, although preliminary testing has already taken place.

“A test was made with a group of administrations and students involved, and it seems that we already got all the bugs out,” O’Neill said.

Spalding said that so far, the new notification system seems to have been well received by the university community.

“I wholeheartedly believe it will be beneficial for student safety and preparedness on campus,” he said.