UF's first attempt to alert students about campus emergencies through text messaging was successful, university officials said Tuesday.
Out of 44,000 students who provided contact information to UF, more than 42,000 received the trial text on their cell phones at about noon, said UF spokesman Steve Orlando.
"Right now it's looking really good," Orlando said of the preliminary response. "It appears right now that it was a good choice to do this."
The text told recipients the message was a "test of the UF emergency message system" and directed students to the Office of Information Technology's Web site if they had any problems.
UF established the system in the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech in April, when the school's officials were criticized for not responding quickly enough to the shootings.
All UF students were required to update their emergency contact information by Oct. 22. Mobile Campus, UF's text-messaging provider, used students' provided cell phone numbers to send the alert.
Billy Gower, an economics junior, was in his constitutional history class at 12:16 p.m. when he received the message.
"It was definitely convenient," he said. "That's the best part about it."
However, Gower said, if there were a real emergency he hopes to receive more information in the text message, such as a safe location or resources to call.
Orlando said UF has several prepared messages for emergencies, but character restrictions limit how much information the text can include.
He said in an emergency, students could visit the UF Web site or watch TV news reports to learn more information after receiving an emergency text.
Omar Syed, a UF biology senior, said he received his message at 12:19 p.m.
He thinks the text-messaging system is the best way to get in touch with students in emergency situations.
"It made me feel good that I'm part of the loop," Syed said. "Sometimes you never get phone calls, but you can get texts."
Orlando said students received the message at different times because Mobile Campus can only send 1,000 text messages at once.
UF officials will meet today to review the system's success, he said. UF plans to test the system annually and will send non-emergency information through messages, too, such as reminders about school holidays.
