It\u2019s a miserably cold winter morning, and the streets of Dayton are buried in snow.<\/p>\n
For students at Sinclair Community College, all of which are commuters, an early warning about canceled classes can prevent dangerous driving and wasted time.<\/p>\n
Warnings about weather closings and school emergencies can now be received directly by text message or email, often before the same information is released on television or the radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe news media usually has their stuff updated, but we\u2019re able to provide quicker and better information,\u201d says Ed Vander Bush, manager of marketing services at Sinclair.<\/p>\n
The text alert system was initially launched last year, but upgrades from the service provider (Nexil) have inspired the school to relaunch the program in 2012.\u00a0 Students who signed up for the service last year will automatically have their registration carried over to the new program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about weather closings,\u201d says Vander Bush, \u201cIt\u2019s about any kind of emergency we have on campus, it\u2019s another way for us to get in touch with our students, faculty, staff, and get the best information out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to send out an alert is coordinated by a number of different departments, including Marketing, the Police Department, Facilities Management, and the President\u2019s Office.\u00a0 The system is strictly reserved for emergency situations and urgent information.\u00a0 Last year, only one or two alerts were issued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we take very seriously, and there\u2019s a lot of people involved across campus,\u201d says Vander Bush.<\/p>\n
The new service lets students opt in for warnings about certain Sinclair campuses based on where they attend classes.\u00a0 Students can also now sign up quickly and easily for all text alerts by sending the word SINCLAIR to 888777.<\/p>\n
Although the school\u2019s alert service itself is free, students should be aware of any fees their cell phone service providers may charge to receive texts under their individual plans.<\/p>\n
Similar text warning services has been successfully implemented at many local schools, municipalities, and even fire departments, and the company is very experienced working with large public organizations, according to Vander Bush.<\/p>\n
Vander Bush hopes that all students who are able will sign up for the service.\u00a0 \u201cNot everyone\u2019s running around with a mobile device,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of people are, though… it\u2019s a great way to get information.\u201d<\/p>\n
More information can be found at sinclair.edu\/alerts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s a miserably cold winter morning, and the streets of Dayton are buried in snow. For students at Sinclair Community College, all of which are commuters, an early warning about canceled classes can prevent dangerous driving and wasted time. Warnings about weather closings and school emergencies can now be received directly by text message or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1Qc","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7081,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080\/revisions\/7081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}