NSU has a fantastic alert system put in place to warn students about occurrences such as lightning strikes from impending storms and for general emergency alerts, but some students want change.
Stacy Speakeasy, a member of the Voice of the People club, said, “The siri-like voice of the alert system is too jaded-sounding and overall fuzzy. We want something lively to let us know when we have an emergency. Someone with a little ‘umph’ in their voice is what we need.”
Speakeasy and her club have petitioned for this change since early September and the advisory board of Recorded Voice at NSU finally budged. Jacob Strayngr, head advisor of Recorded Voice, held an anonymous ballot for the new alert system voice on Oct. 6 with a variety of responses including: Jack Nicholson, baby talk, goats screaming and Sir Patrick Stewart.
After days of dispute in the cutting room floor of the advisory board, it has been decided that Lewis Black, comedian and actor known as “Anger” in the recent Disney movie “Inside Out,” will be the new voice of the emergency alert system beginning in the spring.
“It will take some time for Lewis Black to come into the studio to record his voice due to time constraints in his schedule,” said Strayngr. “He only agreed to be the new voice if he could write his own lines which has become a bit of a problem.”
One of Black’s current lines for the fire alarms is, “ Congratulations kid, you burnt your pizza! Now we have to evacuate! Great job smarty-pants!”
Strayngr and his team are working with Black to make his lines more instructional and in turn, make evacuations and other emergency broadcasts simple and easy to understand.
