Emergencies on campuses are changing the process of communications.

Educational institutions were already facing increasing pressure from parents, students, and regulators to secure their campuses. Many smaller institutions have implemented standardized school lockdown procedures. New regulations require all institutions to have:

• The ability to monitor and secure high-risk areas

• Emergency response plans that enable administrators, safety personnel and first responders to work together seamlessly

• The tools to quickly alert staff, faculty and students about emergencies and incidents that require lockdown or evacuation

However, universities with their open, expansive campuses, more transient populations, and a student body of legally adult citizens need even more advanced emergency communications plans to deal with these challenges.

Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) has worked with many schools and universities to implement unified communications systems that: support lockdown procedures, provide emergency notification, enable collaboration with first responders, and integrate with building control systems to support surveillance, deliver alarms and alerts, and enhance the awareness and responsiveness of campus security personnel and administrators.

Alcatel-Lucent Safe Campus solutions allow schools to leverage existing infrastructure investments for voice and data while adding video and mobility components for a comprehensive, three-step approach to campus safety - awareness, response coordination and campus notification.

Emergency communications today is more than just notifying communities. It is about chaos management and speeding the flow of information to decision makers so they can respond quickly and appropriately and disseminate the right information to the right people at the right time.

Before decision makers can notify the campus community, they must become aware of the event, gather information and coordinate the response between school or campus security, the administration, and, if needed, local police or other first responders. Therefore, communications technology is a critical tool for efficient information delivery in a crisis.

Alcatel-Lucent customers can deliver timely, accurate campus-wide notifications to audio and visual devices as well as to personal devices, including mobile phones and PC e-mail clients, while supporting the investment in a personal device mass notification subscription.