On August 7, UVA announced the creation of a new officer, the emergency preparedness director. The new position will oversee all of the University’s emergency response plans and assess its readiness in the wake of natural, epidemic or terrorist emergencies. Marge Sidebottom, the director of emergency preparedness for the UVA health system since 1993, will begin serving in her University-wide capacity on September 1.
 Ready, set, go: Marge Sidebottom, UVA’s new emergency preparedness director, aims to make you "an asset, not a liability," in the event of an emergency. |
Sidebottom will be a communicator and a collaborator among fire, police, rescue and health services in both the UVA and greater Charlottesville communities. "One of my goals is to help everybody recognize how to respond in emergency situations—to ensure that the response is planned and knowledgeable so everyone can be an asset, not a liability," she says. Sidebottom has been involved with another of UVA’s recent security improvements: a text message emergency alert system.
That system had been in the works for almost a year before the Virginia Tech shootings. After April 16, though, UVA accelerated its program and completed it this summer.
It works like this: Students, staff and faculty members register their cell phones with UVA’s security site. During an emergency, the alert system sends text messages describing the event. In addition, UVA will install a dozen LCD screens in high-traffic areas—such as Newcomb Dining Hall, Memorial Gym and UVA’s libraries—that will post notifications during emergency situations and student advertisements during regular times.
William Ashby, an associate dean of students, says the new system’s benefits are threefold. "We wanted to be able to communicate more efficiently, in a way that is more sustainable [than flyering] and frankly, more aesthetically pleasing," he says.
Currently, 6,577 students, staff and faculty members have signed up for the alert system since its debut in May, though Ashby expects at least 10,000 subscribers by the end of next month. Although most of the registered phones belong to incoming freshmen, Ashby expects that more upperclassmen, who received invitations to the sign-up website in May, will register at the beginning of the school year.
One of the advantages of the system overall is that it has the potential to increase communication by word of mouth, so that those notified via cell phones might better spread the word to the rest of UVA’s estimated 33,000 students, staff and faculty.
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