It is a Sunday afternoon and campus is quiet. The tree branches sway in the wind. Smoke rises from the Hamilton Hall chimney. University Police cars are positioned near the Bailey Hall back entrance. Random people walk through campus. A child totes a sled headed for the hill near Drake Football Field as a student passes going in the direction of Main Street.

Everything seems safe and secure on the Morrisville State College campus, but the question is: are students, faculty and staff truly safe?

On this quiet campus it almost seems unimaginable that anything terrible can happen. But it is because of the horrific events that have occurred elsewhere, that Morrisville and other SUNY schools have introduced a safety plan called SUNY Alert. Jessica DeCerce, Director of Public Relations and Government Affairs, said that "in light of Virginia Tech SUNY, Big SUNY, decided that we needed to provide the campus' with some resources to be able to communicate with students effectively in case of an emergency. So what they did was offer them a SUNY state wide solution."

SUNY Alert is an emergency notification system that alerts students, faculty and staff by calling numbers, contacting e-mail addresses and sending text messages to those that have signed up to be notified in case of an emergency.

DeCerce said that all students should be aware of the SUNY Alert system because of how it pops up on Web for Students at the beginning of each semester.

Only 55 percent of the student population is registered, which DeCerce considers to be "great for a start, I would love to see a hundred percent."

DeCerce wants people to know that the point of SUNY Alert is not to sell anyone anything, but rather, the information is only meant for emergencies. "It's not getting sold to a third party or anything like that; this just completely pertains to this emergency system."

Due to the fact that technology is not always reliable and not everyone is accessible by phone, MSC also has other tools to alert people. Currently there are loudspeakers to broadcast information on campus. Two new loudspeakers are in the process of being installed and the University Police patrol vehicles are also suited with loudspeakers to broadcast information.

Dean of Students Geoffrey Isabelle said that on top of the Whipple building there are, "speakers that are bellowing, they are very loud, the town will hear them." 

Jeremiah Piescik, a network administration major, '11. He is aware of the SUNY Alert system, and considers it to be a "good concept, the way they deployed it though it could be improved. The idea is great, but it's unclear."

Piescik was just one of several students that were uncertain about all of the aspects that are included in the SUNY Alert system. In response, Isabelle said that, "the purpose behind any emergency communication, including the text, is a specific message based on available information."

The message contains a specific description, Isabelle said, about the known risk and any specific instructions about actions and steps to be taken by the audience to minimize risk.

Colleen Gibbons, nursing, ‘09, considers SUNY Alert to be a good idea because it "helps awareness of what's going on, on campus, especially if you live on campus". Colleen didn't think much about giving her phone number because that is how she would be contacted.

Then there are students like Alex Mercer, '09, a Computer System Technology major. He was aware of the SUNY Alert System, but did not register. "It looked like a long process," he said.  However, Mercer does consider the SUNY Alert System to be "a good idea that probably should be mandatory." 

Random acts of violence such as Virginia Tech are not always predictable and or preventable. Without question MSC has and will continue to do anything to maintain a safe environment.

Being realistic, however, the college is aware that the technology they are depending on may not always be reliable

DeCerce said, "We've tested on a small scale with some of our core groups, and are planning to send a test message to all users using the NY Alert System before the end of the semester." 

DeCerce wanted to make it clear that, "if anybody has any questions, I may not be able to answer them, but I certainly can put them in touch with someone who can."

Jessica DeCerce, the Director of Public Relations/Government Affairs can be reached at 315.684.6041 or decercja@morrisville.edu.