A lot of crazy events have happened this past year. With the rise of school threats, it’s necessary to have an efficient alert system and NSU has been falling way behind on this.
The speakers throughout campus are extremely hard to hear. The voice sounds so muffled, it’s difficult to hear whether something is an emergency or if lightning is near. I can be right by the speaker and still not understand what’s happening.
There’s also the computer alerts that should show up on all desktops at NSU. During the most recent emergency alert test, three out of the ten computers in The Current’s office showed the alert. Every computer in the office is on the NSU Wifi and has the Alertus Desktop app. If it barely works in a small room, how well could it work across campus during an actual emergency?
My biggest issue with the NSU Alert system is text and email notifications. I have signed up for the alerts through the website and for the past year, I have never received a single text or email. I even tried updating the information and I still don’t get anything. My parents, who are a thousand miles away in Jersey get the notifications sometimes, but the student who’s enrolled doesn’t receive anything. If NSU has every student’s email and personal information, why do students need to sign up? What if a student doesn’t know you need to sign up to get any sort of emergency alert? I guess they would be left in the dark like many other students on campus. I didn’t get a single text or email with the alert system test recently. Only four people out of the twelve in the office at that time got a text or email. Once again, if this small group barely gets a notification, how can it be trusted by the entire student body if something happens?
I will say, the alarms that go off in the Desantis Building and library are actually good. I was in the library during an alert system test last year and I was quite impressed with it. The alarm is loud, the voice isn’t hard to understand and you can hear it throughout the building. Those alarms during an emergency could make a huge difference.
As a whole, I do not have the most confidence in the NSU Alert system. There seems to be more issues with it as time goes on. It concerns me that a majority of students don’t get any sort of notification even if they sign up. The system does have potential, but it would be a lot more efficient if students actually got an alert.
