About EC AlertEC Alert is Elizabethtown College’s communications system for sharing important information about situations that affect the safety of our campus community. Typically, EC Alert messages will be delivered to campus community members as e-mails from the College’s EC Alert mailbox. To enhance our ability to communicate during life-threatening and potentially catastrophic situations, Elizabethtown College entered into an agreement in February 2008 with Blackboard Connect Inc. to provide us with notification services through the Connect-ED Emergency Communications System. Connect-ED allows the College to send EC Alert messages not only to campus e-mail addressed but also to external e-mail addresses, on- and off-campus telephones, and text-enabled devices. The phone calls will appear to come from 717-361-1988, which is the College’s emergency hotline. Text messages will appear with the code 23177. E-mails will come from either EC Alert or ecalert@etown.edu. If you have any concerns about the validity of an EC Alert message, please call the College’s emergency hotline at 717-361-1988 or visit this website, as the Emergency Management Group also will post emergency notices at these locations. EC Alert: Frequently Asked Questions
What is EC Alert? Are there any phone numbers that cannot be entered into EC Alert? How will I know that an EC Alert message is real? Will the EC Alert system be tested? What should I do if I don’t receive the EC Alert test message? I received the message in my e-mail inbox, but when I clicked the link to play the message nothing happened. Why? I received the message on my cell phone, but I missed the information. What should I do? I received the message but it keeps looping/repeating. Why? Do I need to do anything to sign up for EC Alert text messages? How do I know that I’m registered to receive them? How do I opt-out of text messages? How do I opt back into the text-messaging feature after opting-out? Do I need to opt-in again if I change mobile phone providers but keep the same number? How do I opt-out of EC Alert e-mail messages? How often will the EC Alert emergency contact lists be updated? Whom do I call with questions? EC Alert is Elizabethtown College’s communications system for sharing important information about situations that affect the safety of our campus community. Typically, EC Alert messages will be delivered to campus community members as e-mails from the College’s EC Alert mailbox. To enhance our ability to communicate during life-threatening and potentially catastrophic situations, Elizabethtown College entered into an agreement in February 2008 with Blackboard Connect Inc. to provide us with notification services through the Connect-ED Emergency Communications System. Connect-ED allows the College to send EC Alert messages not only to campus e-mail addresses but also to off-campus e-mail addresses, on- and off-campus telephones, and text-enabled devices. Return to List Connect-ED is a communications service that allows for the delivery of time-sensitive emergency notices through a variety of communications modes, including: · Voice messages to on- and off-campus phone numbers; · Text messages to cellular phones, PDAs and other text-based devices; · Messages to on- and off-campus e-mail accounts; and · Messages to TTY/TDD receiving devices for the hearing impaired. Return to List After carefully reviewing available options, Elizabethtown College chose Connect-ED because the service offered the greatest functionality and flexibility and because Blackboard Connect Inc. has a proven track record of reliable service. Return to List How does Connect-ED enhance the College’s EC Alert network? Changes in the way that our society communicates require that the College look for new methods for sharing vital information during an emergency. For example, with the growing use of cellular phones, most of our traditional students no longer use the phone lines in their rooms. And messages posted on the website or sent electronically to campus e-mail boxes do not reach students, faculty and staff members unless they are physically located at a computer. Also, the growing population of adult learners taking classes at the Elizabethtown College campus through the Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning (CCEDL) typically don’t have access to the College’s e-mail or phone system. Connect-ED broadens the College’s connections to members of the campus community and others outside our immediate community. Previously, the College’s Emergency Management Group could send safety messages to campus e-mail boxes and to phones connected to the campus telecommunication network. With Connect-ED, Elizabethtown College now can reach phones outside the campus telecommunications network. Additionally, it will allow us to send text messages to students’ and employees’ text-based devices for which we have contact numbers. Through the service, we also can send messages to e-mail addresses, both inside and outside the College’s network. Additionally, Connect-ED allows all these communications to be distributed simultaneously to ensure the most rapid notification possible. Connect-ED does not rely on the availability of the campus computer or telecommunications network, adding redundancy to the College’s emergency notification process. Return to List No. Typically, EC Alert messages will be sent as an e-mail to: · the on-campus mail box of our faculty, staff and traditional students, and · the off-campus e-mail address of our CCEDL students who have been enrolled in a class at the Elizabethtown College campus at some point during the current semester. Only during a life-threatening or potentially catastrophic emergency would we send an EC Alert message to telephones and text-enabled devices. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, frequent EC Alert messages could be seen as routine, which might result in them being overlooked. Second, many of our community members pay for the telephone calls and text messages that they receive. We do not want to burden them with charges for messages that are not of the most urgent of nature. Some examples of situations in which EC Alert messages would be sent to cellular phones and text-enabled devices include a tornado sighting near the College campus, a fire in a residence hall, a call to evacuate a campus building, or a warning about a campus intruder with intent to harm. On-campus power outages and/or a College computer network failure may necessitate that we rely on EC Alert phone calls and text messages to share an announcement that might otherwise have been distributed only via e-mail. Of special note, inclement weather notices will continue to be sent only as Campus News announcements to our faculty, staff and traditional students. CCEDL students will continue to receive notifications about weather cancellations via an e-mail communication from CCEDL staff. Return to List Typically, EC Alert notices only will be sent to the College e-mail box of our faculty, staff and traditional students and to the student-provided e-mail address of our CCEDL students who have been enrolled in a class at the Elizabethtown College campus during the current semester. In life-threatening and potentially catastrophic emergencies, the College’s faculty and staff will receive an EC Alert message at the following e-mail address/phone number(s): · Their College e-mail address; · Their work telephone extension (if one has been assigned to them); · Their cellular phone (if they have provided the phone number to the College); · Their text-enabled device (if they have provided the phone number to the College) In May 2008, the College surveyed all of our employees to request contact information for their cellular phones and text-enabled devices. All new employees now are surveyed upon hire.
· Their College e-mail address; · Their cellular phone (if they have provided the number to the College); · Their text-enabled device (if they have provided the number to the College) In fall 2008, the College began collecting this new contact information from our students during the check-in process, which is completed in ECWeb.
The EC Alert system was rolled out to the College’s adult learners in January 2009. All CCEDL students who have taken a class at the Elizabethtown College campus at some point during the current semester are automatically enrolled in the system using the telephone number and e-mail address provided by the student. During a life-threatening or potentially catastrophic situation, these students will receive EC Alert messages at the following addresses/phone numbers: · The e-mail address that they provided to the College; · The phone number that they provided to the College; Additionally, a text-message will be sent to the device for which we have a phone number. If the device is text-enabled, it will receive the message.
EC Alert cannot call international numbers or phone numbers that are not direct dial (i.e. extensions that can only be reached through a main number). The sending address for all EC Alert e-mail messages – both those sent through the campus computer network and through Connect-ED – will appear to come from either EC Alert or ecalert@etown.edu. For those who have Caller ID, the phone number for incoming EC Alert messages will appear as (717) 361-1988, which is the College’s emergency hotline. Students, faculty and staff who have text-enabled devices will see the code 23177, which they should save as EC Alert.
In the event of an emergency at Elizabethtown College, the College’s Emergency Management Group will post a message on the College’s Emergency Hotline, which is (717) 361-1988, and on the College’s Emergency Action Plan website, which is located at www.etown.edu/EmergencyActionPlan.aspx.
Will the EC Alert system be tested? Yes. Elizabethtown College will test the EC Alert system once per semester. At the start of each semester, the date of the test will be posted on the College’s Emergency Action Plan website, which is located at www.etown.edu/EmergencyActionPlan.aspx and will be announced via e-mail to faculty, staff and students – both traditional and CCEDL students who have been enrolled in a class at Elizabethtown sometime during the current semester. The test likely will occur in the late afternoon or early evening hours. During the spring semester, test messages will be sent via e-mail, on- and off-campus telephones. Parent telephone numbers and e-mail addresses also will be sent a test message. Text-enabled devices will NOT be tested. What should I do if I don’t receive the EC Alert test message? If you don’t receive the EC Alert test message, either:
Employees who do not receive an EC Alert message should send an e-mail to ecalert@etown.edu, identifying the type of message that they did not receive (e-mail, phone call to office phone number, phone call to cellular phone number or text message). They also should confirm their correct contact information. Traditional students who don’t receive the message should verify if their personal contact information and their parents’/guardians’ contact information was entered correctly in EC Web. All phone numbers should be entered without hyphens or parentheses. Please be aware that EC Alert cannot call international numbers or phone numbers that are not direct dial (i.e. extensions that can only be reached through a main number). CCEDL students, who have been enrolled in a class at the Elizabethtown College campus during the current semester and who do not receive an EC Alert message, should send an e-mail to the CCEDL office at nelsonsa@etown.edu. The student should identify the type of message that he/she did not receive and his/her correct contact information. Again, please be aware that EC Alert cannot call phone numbers that are not direct dial (i.e. extensions that can only be reached through a main number). Return to List You may not have a default media player like Windows Media Player or Quicktime installed. Download these players from www.microsoft.com or www.apple.com and install them on your computer to listen to EC Alert messages. Return to List While on the call, you can replay the message by pressing the star key (*) at the end of the message. You also may check your e-mail inbox to locate the link for the message. Return to List The system does its best to detect whether it has reached a person or an answering machine. Sometimes loud ambient noises may cause the system to loop. If this happens, use the mute feature on your phone or move to a quieter location to prevent the message from looping or repeating. The College automatically will register all cellular phones to receive text messages. As long as your cellular phone accepts text messages, you should receive them. The first time your information is downloaded into the Connect-ED system, you will receive a confirmation message. On the day of the download, the confirmation message will be sent between 1 and 9 p.m. The confirmation message will say:
EC Alert: You are now confirmed to receive alerts from us. More info text reply “HELP” or “STOP ETOWN” to opt-out. In response to this message, most cellular phone providers do not require you to take any action to be opted-in to the text message feature of EC Alert. However, if your cellular provider is T-Mobile, you will be required to reply “Y ETOWN or YES ETOWN” to the message in order to be opted-in. Return to List Please check with your mobile phone provider to find out if your device accepts text messages. You also may want to check with your provider to determine if text messaging has been enabled for your phone. You may need to subscribe to a text-messaging plan in order to receive or reply to text messages. Return to List No. If your SMS phone already was submitted to the EC Alert database, you should be set up to receive SMS alerts from the College. You may verify that you are signed up by texting the word “SUBSCRIBE” to 23177, and you will receive the following message in reply:
EC Alert: This phone number has already been opted in. More info text reply “HELP” or “STOP ETOWN” to opt-out. Return to List Elizabethtown College recommends that you remain fully opted-in to the EC Alert system. However, you may opt-out of the text messaging feature at any time by texting “STOP ETOWN” or “QUIT ETOWN” to 23177. Return to List You may request to begin receiving text messages by texting “SUBSCRIBE ETOWN” to 23177. Return to List No. Once your phone number has been opted-in, it stays registered within the system. How do I opt-out of EC Alert e-mail messages? Elizabethtown College reserves the right to send EC Alert messages to all Elizabethtown College e-mail addresses. Parents of our traditional students who wish to unsubscribe from EC Alert e-mail messages should ask their son/daughter to log onto EC Web and remove their e-mail address from the listing for the student’s primary emergency contact. Adjunct faculty who receive EC Alert messages in their personal e-mail box may unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to ecalert@etown.edu. CCEDL students may unsubscribe by sendign an e-mail to nelsonsa@etown.edu. As required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, every e-mail correspondence sent to an off-campus e-mail address must include information about how to “unsubscribe” from this feature of EC Alert. Additionally, cellular phone carriers require that the College provide a similar opportunity to “opt-out” of text messages. The College strongly urges members of the campus community and parents to remain opted-in to the system. Return to List Elizabethtown College will provide new lists to Blackboard Connect Inc. at the beginning of each semester. Typically, while the College is in session, we will update the lists daily. Return to List Please contact the Office of Marketing and Communications at (717) 361-1410 with questions about the system. |
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Elizabethtown College Emergency Hotline: 1-717-361-1988 |
