A Sound and Logical Reaction

University of Maryland College Park and Towson University, the two largest state univerisities in Maryland are launching separate programs to use text messaging to warn students of emergencies.

Both universities took swift action in the wake of the deadliest shooting rampage in American history at Virginia Tech last month, which raised questions about why students and faculty there went hours without knowledge of a gunman on the campus.

As university enrollments rise and young people increasingly prefer communicating via text messages sent to cell phones rather than by e-mail, schools are incorporating the newer trend into their emergency response plans, security experts say.

With the prevalence of cell phones with the messaging service on campus, the move seems logical. Some of Maryland's smaller universities already have such a system. The system cost the University of Maryland a mere $65,000 to set up and it seems a small price to pay for a useful tool on a campus of more than 30,000 students.

For the system to work, students would have to subscribe to the service. The Baltimore Sun story did not contain any information about whether there is a fee for the service, but I would suspect not.