Facebook may no longer be a place exclusively devoted to procrastination, but instead a useful way to notify college students about possible emergency threats on their campuses.
The University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Maryland at College Park are two universities that have started to experiment with social networks as a way to relay information about incidents on campus, safety drills and emergency preparedness.
Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said Duke would not rule out the use of social networking technology if students thought it would be helpful. But he noted that the University is concentrating on refining existing voice-alert and text-messaging systems.
"At this point, our priority is with making execution flawless," Moneta wrote in an e-mail. "We're engaged in various drills, meeting frequently to talk through conditions and consequences and developing localized plans at the school, department and unit levels."
Maj. Jay Gruber, assistant director of the UMD Department of Public Safety, helped launch an emergency awareness Facebook group at the end of June. The group, "Emergency Awareness at University of Maryland" currently has 259 members and contains detailed information about emergency messages the university releases. Gruber said he got the idea to utilize social networks as part of an emergency preparedness program from UCLA.
"Students are not using conventional media outlets to receive their information," Gruber said. "They are getting their media [in] additional ways through additional sources, and Facebook is one the most popular ways of social networking."
Maryland students can also report suspicious behavior on a discussion board, allowing for two-way communication, Gruber said. The UMD Department of Public Safety can then investigate when appropriate.
Some Duke students and Moneta said sending emergency information via Facebook would do no harm but could be redundant.
"For the people who are constantly logged onto Facebook, alerts would probably reach them quickly," senior Dan Haaren said. "But aren't alerts also sent out via e-mail already, and aren't the same people who are always checking their Facebook always checking their e-mail as well?"
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.