"School-to-Student Communication System Built Specifically for Higher Education Allows Campus Leaders to Reach Thousands of Students in Minutes."
(January 22, 2008) Stanly Community College (SCC) recently announced the deployment of the Connect-ED communication service by the NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) to provide SCC leaders with the ability to reach all students, faculty, and staff with time-sensitive information within minutes.
“Today we are forced to prepare for emergency situations that years ago we never could have anticipated happening,” commented Dr. Russell H. Sharples, SCC Vice President of Student Development. “It is crucial that we are able to notify students immediately in emergency situations, and up-to-date communications help minimize the spread of misinformation, restore order, and provide direction,” added Dr. Sharples.
Built exclusively for post-secondary institutions using the experience gained in delivering hundreds of millions of messages for K-12 educators, the service enables campus leaders to schedule, send, and track personalized voice messages up to six phone numbers and two email addresses per person. In all, the multi-modal service helps officials reach out to students and staff via:
“We recognize the important role that immediate communication plays in safety and have selected Connect-ED because of its successful track record and multi-modal capabilities that will allow us to keep students and staff informed whether they are at home, sitting in front of their computers, or on their way to class,” said Jim Hillier, SCC Chief Technology Officer.
The system can be used to notify entire student populations and staff members of school closures and contingency plans due to inclement weather, issues arising from pandemics, or other late-breaking developments. Connect-ED has been successfully used for communication by schools across the country during events such as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ernesto, school shootings, campus notifications required by the Clery Act, and to help locate missing children.
SCC will launch the Connect-ED service on January 25, 2008, and is currently testing data provided by their students. If you are a community member who erroneously receives a call, please contact SCC’s Help Desk at (704) 991-0222 or http://helpdesk.stanly.edu and your number will be removed from the service immediately.
More information about the Connect-ED service for post-secondary educators is available at www.ntigroup.com.