Castleton University is unveiling a smartphone app to provide a new layer of safety for faculty, staff, and students.
The Castleton Safety App, created by Everbridge, will provide a direct line to Public Safety for any registered member of the Castleton community.
"This is a proactive effort in maintaining student safety. Colleges are beginning to move to apps for safety communication," said Keith Molinari, director of public safety. "Using an app is another way for students to communicate with Public Safety and one that nearly all of our students are familiar with."
The app offers users four functions:
The University will continue to maintain its blue light phone system in addition to the app. Blue light systems are phones placed in a variety of locations on campus for emergency calls.
"The app adds another level of communication with Public Safety," Molinari said. "When you use a blue light, you are stuck at that location. With the app, you can be located more easily because it is more dynamic."
At the start of the fall semester, Castleton also rolled out a new public alert system, called Castleton Alerts powered by Everbridge. Castleton Alerts delivers a campus-wide message via text message, email, and voicemail to all registered users.