Security Gaps Found in Iowa Regent Universities Emergency Text Alerts

In a world where nearly everyone has at least one cell phone, only about a third to half of Iowa's regent university students would receive emergency alerts via text, IowaWatch.org reports.

Less than half the students at Iowa State University and University of Iowa would receive text alerts and about 60 percent of University of Northern Iowa students would, according to the IowaWatch report republished by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Read the full report at the IowaWatch website: Student Debt for Iowa’s New College Graduates Remains High.

But both Iowa State and University of Iowa report reaching 94 percent of their students with some type of notification system, the report said. The UNI alert system reaches 96 percent of students, according to the report.

See more of the report below.

Only 27 percent of the UI's students receiving emergency notices get text alerts, with another 20 percent receiving voice and text alerts, the university's records show. At ISU, 49 percent of the students receiving emergency notices receive text alerts, data show.

That is worth noting because experts say text messages are the most effective method to reach college students during an emergency.

"The best way to respond (to an emergency) is to have the most instantaneous message delivery on a college campus, and that by far is text messaging," said Michael Hanley, an associate professor and the director of Ball State University's Institute for Mobile Media Research.

According to Hanley's research, 81 percent of students use text messaging as their primary form of communication, while only 9 percent use email as their main mode of communication. "Students use e-mail for classwork, not for personal communication," he said.