Last month’s campus siren test was intended to keep
students abreast of emergency procedures. Instead,
we found out that most of us don’t take emergency
preparedness seriously. Now, school officials are considering
making the emergency cell phone text messages
mandatory (see article on Page 3).
This won’t be such a bad way to go if VCU really is
that determined to get everyone involved. The numbers
show that more than one-fourth of the VCU community
has signed up for the text messages.
Mandatory registration would be a win-win situation
for both students and the school. Students wouldn’t
have to bother signing up, and then the school would
stop asking us to.
It’s like any parent-child relationship: Sometimes
kids shouldn’t be asked to do things, because then
they won’t do them. You have to make them.
Using cynicism to justify not signing up isn’t completely
wrong. Despite the Delaware State University
shooting that occurred two days after our siren test,
a lot of us aren’t fully persuaded that emergency text
messages will be effective. Mandatory registration
would save us a lot of grief and I-told-you-so’s, should
anything happen here.
For my part, I admit I haven’t done the responsible
thing and signed up for the text messages. I should,
though. My parents signed up for it. My phone has
text messaging abilities. And I’m a journalism student,
for crying out loud. I have no excuse, other than a
blossoming case of senioritis.
Supposedly, mandatory registration will be a last
resort. But what brilliant and innovative marketing
tactics can VCU use to convince students to register?
Though the “win a free iPod” strategy sure is hot these
days, it doesn’t always guarantee a captive audience.
Free tuition, parking, and of course the free iPod
were the big prizes at Ram Madness this weekend. If
VCU can channel that energy forward basketball, why
can’t it do the same for text message registration?