STATE COLLEGE – State Rep. Scott Conklin announced Monday that he has sent a letter to more than 135 institutions of higher learning across Pennsylvania urging them to adopt a cell phone notification emergency alert system.
“We are trying to tell the people and the Universities of Pennsylvania how important safety is and how important having a system in place is to not only myself but every parent and every student,” he said.
Conklin’s letter reminds college and university presidents of his security resolution that passed the House of Representatives calling for the implementation of cell phone notification systems on campuses. Penn State University’s has made its system an “opt out only” one beginning in this fall.
“Penn State is showing their leadership in the nation by having every student give their numbers but we need to do more we need to get the other universities in Pennsylvania.”
Conklin’s technology push is very straight forward: Virtually every college student has a cell phone. Every institution of higher learning should be able to contact it directly in the case of an emergency. The representative is waiting for a reply to his letter before deciding whether to make his resolution into a bill which would require compliance.