MEDIA ADVISORY to Weekend and Monday News Editors: Follow up on Campus Gunman: Immediate News Feature / Interview Opportunities
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - September 30, 2007) -
-- Proposed legislation would require emergency text-messaging at college
and university campuses statewide
-- St. John's University campus-wide alert sent via cell phone text
messages to students and faculty
-- Praise from NY Governor, NY Police Commissioner, State Assembly Member,
University Administration
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News Feature / Interview Opportunities
In addition to the statements issued by the Governor, the Police
Commissioner Assemblyman Lancman and St. John's University (see below),
additional feature news content and interviews are available to editors and
producers over the weekend and on Monday.
Contact Shirley Gines at MediaBridge for coordination and referrals to key
spokespeople, subject matter experts and other news makers.
Please send an email to SaintJohns@expresswire.com
Or telephone 1-858-459-6338 or 1-650-618-1544.
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Background: After a masked gunman was spotted and subdued without a single
injury this week on the campus of local University, New York City Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a news conference, "St. John's newly
instituted emergency text messaging system worked like a charm."
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer praised the University's newly installed
electronic notification system and New York Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman
offered legislation requiring text-messaging systems at college and
university campuses all across New York State.
Dr. James Pellow, chief operating officer of St. John's University, lobbied
his administration for an emergency notification system after the Virginia
Tech tragedy in April, 2007. This week, Dr. Pellow was quoted in the media
as saying, "No one thought that we would be testing this latest technology
this quickly for an emergency"... it "allowed us to manage this mini-city
of 20,000 people."
The emergency text message sent to the St. John's campus in Queens by
Thomas Lawrence, the university's vice president for public safety and a
former deputy chief of New York Police Department, read as follows: "From
Public Safety. Male was found on campus with rifle. Please stay in your
buildings until further notice. He is in custody, but please wait until the
all clear."
St. John's inCampusAlert text-messaging system, provided by MIR3, a
California technology company that specializes in automated mass
notification systems for corporations, governments and universities, was
credited with keeping the campus population informed and calm, and for
enhancing public safety during the crisis.
"The University's response... serves as a national model," Police
Commissioner Kelly added. "Coincidentally, St. John's was one of the
participants in our campus security conference last week, during which we
examined the emergency response at Virginia Tech, and other campuses."
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Key words: Campus security, police, campus safety, public safety, colleges
and universities, crime, emergency mass notification system, text messages,
text message warning systems, St. John's University, Virginia Tech, State
University, digital signs, student unions, dormitories, computers, laptops
PDAs, cell phones, cellular, iPhone, pagers, security procedures, gunman,
campus shooting, rifle, handgun, gun control, firearms, government
agencies, logistics, 911, state police, NYPD, FBI.
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Contact Information: Media Contact:
Shirley Gines
MediaBridge
1-858-459-6338