MCC plans to bolster warning system
Pointing to the recent shooting deaths at Northern Illinois University, McHenry County College will expedite efforts to modernize its emergency notification system, officials said this week.
The school may buy a system that would contact the 9,000 people in the school community through e-mail, text message and voice mail in the event of campus emergencies.
One of the companies offering the service, 3n (National Notification Network), also expanded Virginia Tech's mass notification system after the shooting deaths there last year.
If MCC's board of trustees approves the proposal Thursday, people would sign up for the service on the school's Web site and specify their preferred notification methods, said Dale Naleway, associate director of communications technologies.
The service costs $2.50 a person, a fee the school would cover, Naleway said.
The new communication system supplements existing methods MCC uses to reach students and staff, including an intercom system, a phone tree, Web notification, on-campus television monitors and the school switchboard.
MCC also is outfitting every classroom with phones and will plug up holes in the cell phone network shared by the Crystal Lake police and select administrators.
Officials also may add more television monitors to the school's public areas that would display emergency messages.
"The one thing to stress is multiple modes of communication are going to be essential. There's no one way that is best," Naleway said. "I think the more we can do the more our students will feel safer."
The Valentine's Day shooting rampage at NIU, in which five people were killed by a gunman in a lecture hall, shocked many at MCC.
With roughly 100 MCC students each month seeking transfers to the DeKalb university each month, MCC has strong ties to NIU.
MCC President Walt Packard said many NIU students who graduated from MCC have been back on the Crystal Lake campus this week to express their feelings about the incident and to let former teachers know they're OK.
"A situation like that is so challenging because it's so unpredictable," Packard said of the on-campus shootings.
He also plans on attending NIU's memorial service Sunday evening.
At least two MCC school counselors have volunteered to help counsel NIU students when classes resume next week.
Former MCC students have organized a support group at the university's Latino Resource Center.
Future collaborations, fundraisers and events are in the works, said MCC spokeswoman Christina Haggerty.