Higher education campuses throughout South Dakota are gearing up for a new school year by implementing a new emergency alert system, courtesy of the South Dakota Board of Regents.

"South Dakota has emergencies, though they're not the same across the country," said Monte Kramer, the system vice president of administrative services for the Board of Regents.

The board of regents tested the new system in June on eight campuses including Black Hills State University, South Dakota State University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota School of the Blind and Visually Impaired and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. In its meeting Friday, the board of regents discussed the campus alert system and the updates.

"We learned a lot from the summer test," Kramer said. "What we learned caused us to rethink how we're putting data in the system."

The system contacts members through landlines and cellular phones, text messaging, e-mail and instant messaging. Members are students, faculty and staff who register for the system through e-mail.

Of the eight campuses, six had between 30 and 61 percent of those contacted confirm they received the message. The remaining two had less than 30 percent confirm the notification.

Kramer wasn't surprised at the response rate.

"No one is accustomed with it. We want people to get comfortable with it," he said. Because the test was conducted during the summer, the numbers were lower.

A few campuses experienced some minor issues with the test. Some people were confused about why they were receiving messages. People outside of the campuses received notification because many of the numbers in the system were outdated and had been assigned to another phone customer.

To avoid these problems in the future, the board of regents will change the way it uploads the information. Now, phone numbers will only be loaded into the system when they are provided by participants.

The School of Mines experienced no problems during the test.

"It turned out well," Jerilyn Roberts, environmental health and safety manager, said. "It shows where you need to improve." One such area, she said, was to make sure contact information in the system is correct and as current as possible.

An addendum to the agenda for the Board of Regents was a policy of action on the participation of the students, faculty and staff.

"We feel it is our utmost responsibility to keep people safe," Kramer said. The recommendation to the board is to require that everyone enroll all campus contact information so no one will be excluded.

The policy will also allow faculty and staff to choose to provide other personal information, Kramer said. The policy for the students will be to encourage them to participate by providing personal contact information. They will be required to provide at least their campus e-mail.

"We're not going to force students," Kramer said. Because students are mobile, it would be better to have more information with which to contact them. "Once used, they will realize they want to be a part of it."

The Board of Regents will set up another series of tests in the fall but will stagger them throughout the different college campuses.

Contact Sarah Beu at 394-8318 or sarah.beu@rapidcityjournal.com