Occidental has been running tests to securely change the platform of the OxyAlert system, which is used to notify campus residents of urgent information.
According to Vice President of Information Technology Services (ITS) James Uhrich, the new security platform, Rave Mobile, works similarly to Final Site Connect, Occidental’s prior alert system.
“[Rave Mobile] is a mass notification system that lots of organizations — higher education institutions, high schools and grade schools — use to send out emergency notifications via e-mail, text and phone call,” Uhrich said.
According to Uhrich, alert systems similar to OxyAlert are used nationwide. Urich said OxyAlert has been in place for his entire 16-year tenure at the college.
“It’s the same process,” Uhrich said. “It’s a different platform being used, but the process is still the same.”
According to Executive Assistant for ITS Gabriela Ortega, the Rave Mobile alert system is widely used because of its versatility.
“What’s great about a system like this is it gives you multiple avenues to receive the message,” Ortega said. “If you’re not on your phone right now, you still get that e-mail.”
Uhrich said the process of sending an alert via OxyAlert consists of just a few button presses, since time is precious in an emergency situation.
“Log in, choose your population, choose the channels you want to send [the alert to] and hit send,” Urich said. “All of these systems are designed to make it as easy as possible for the people allowed to […] to get in and [send alerts] as quickly as possible, because if you’re in an emergency situation, you want to execute your communication plan as effectively as you can.”
According to Uhrich, Rave Mobile provides numerous benefits when compared to Final Site Connect, including the ability to better manage data for sending emergency notifications to specific groups.
“[Rave Mobile has] the ability to better manage more [specific] groups, and to manage the data in a way where if we wanted to send a notification to just everyone in the library, we have better capacity to do that with this system,” Uhrich said.
Uhrich said Rave Mobile has more compatible interactions with the other systems the campus uses, systems which ITS also has to manage.
“[Rave Mobile] can integrate more effectively with some of our other systems that we have,” Uhrich said. “That makes it easier to manage and gives us more opportunities to possibly tie [it] into the card access system, or some other things. We haven’t done that yet, but it has potential to do more stuff for us in the future.”
Director of Campus Safety Stacy Spell said Final Site worked every time it was called upon, but after review, campus leadership concluded that Rave Mobile was more widely supported, and better respected in the industry.
“[Rave Mobile] is far more reliable,” Spell said. “It provides greater support [and] greater outreach overall. It seems to be a more effective tool and a better fit for us here at Occidental.”
According to Uhrich, both Rave Mobile and Final Site are currently still active simultaneously.
“Both systems are currently live,” Uhrich said. “We are in a fortunate position, and we will [be] for the next several months. We will have two alert systems.”
According to Uhrich, Final Site cannot be kept due to contractual reasons, but it will stay in Occidental’s system until after Rave Mobile becomes the primary alert system.
“We decided we were going to keep [Rave Mobile] as our secondary until we got the semester going and we were able to do […] a validated test to all students and faculty,” Uhrich said. “Then that becomes our primary and we have [Final Site] as our secondary until that contract runs out at the end of the year.”
Spell said OxyAlert is used specifically for emergency notifications, and that “emergency” could be characterized broadly. Violent crime, issues in areas just outside of campus and sudden severe weather reports are all under this classification.
“For example, let’s say that there’s something going on out in the greater community […] and then it overlaps onto our college campus or we need to do a lockdown or a shelter in place,” Spell said. “Those would be prime examples of when campus safety would take the lead in putting out some kind of messaging.”
Spell said there are other ways Campus Safety reaches out to residents of the campus.
“We want to build in redundancy,” Spell said. “It’s a way of being responsible in communicating with the greater Oxy community.”
Contact Colin Robinette at crobinette@oxy.edu
