Purdue University will evaluate the reliability of text messaging on large scale. Executive director of IT networks and security at Purdue, Scott Ksander says the shootings at Virginia Tech have sparked a lot of interest in alternative ways to deliver emergency messages on campus, but they want to test how it works before something happens.
The university will send out a test message to most of the registered cell phones on campus in September to see how many people it gets to, and how fast it gets there. Ksander says they’re also testing how much the system can handle. Students register with the list when they fill out their emergency contact information at the start of the year.
