Emergency preparedness was a major campus priority during the fall semester. Projects included enrolling faculty, staff and students in a new messaging system, offering flu vaccines to the community, and developing plans for winter weather and a potential influenza pandemic.

"We've made significant progress in several areas, particularly in emergency messaging," said Richard McDaniel, vice president for risk management and public safety. "We've also advanced in our understanding of how emergency communications can be carried out on a campus of our size and complexity."

He cited the installation of the new AlertNow messaging system, which included building a registration process, informing the campus and testing the system. Today 56 percent of students and 58 percent of employees are enrolled to receive voice, text or e-mail messages -- more than 19,000 would be sent -- if an emergency occurs on campus. This success rate is considered exceptional for opt-in programs, McDaniel said. Three separate tests of the newly installed system were conducted in November and December.

"Our first test results on Nov. 7 were disappointing," said McDaniel. The voice messaging proceeded flawlessly, delivering 2,723 voice messages within six minutes. However, it took several hours to deliver 15,238 text messages. The problem was traced to settings in the service provider's software and was fixed before a limited test -- which worked flawlessly -- was conducted with 7,100 employees on Nov. 29.

The second full test delivered more than 19,000 text and voice messages on Dec. 5. Voice mail was sent quickly. Text messaging also occurred flawlessly at three of the four area cellphone service carriers. But Verizon, the largest carrier, took 55 minutes to transmit its queue. The cause of the delay was an incorrect communication setting between mBlox, a text messaging aggregator, and Verizon equipment that has since been corrected.

As a backup, Cornell is partnering with NYAlert, an officially sponsored statewide system. With this partnership, Cornell will be the first private university in the state working with NYAlert.

"Mass messaging systems have inherent weaknesses," McDaniel said. "They are complex and can overload cell systems' capacity. As we enroll even more people in our system, we can expect that it will likely take 40 minutes or more to get the word out through that method."

McDaniel also noted that the Virginia governor's report on the Virginia Tech tragedy strongly recommended that universities use multichannel high- and low-tech communications in emergencies. Cornell has those, McDaniel said, in the form of loudspeakers in Cornell Police vehicles; e-mail and Web postings deliver information efficiently in the event of a campus emergency. A campuswide siren system also will be in place early this semester.

"We have much in place, and we are continually improving our communications systems," McDaniel said. "Cornell is prepared today to use these and other methods as necessary to respond to a campus emergency."

Under the direction of McDaniel, Vice Provost John Siliciano and Gannett Health Services Executive Director Janet Corson-Rikert, a Pandemic Flu Steering Committee, composed of representatives from health services, faculty, research, student services and several university services groups, has been meeting for more than a year to develop a comprehensive plan to be put in place if -- as global health experts warn -- a new strain of deadly flu sweeps around the world. Details of the plan will be presented to the campus community early this year.

In response to the winter flu season and urgings from Gannett and other health professionals, a substantial number of faculty, staff and students received free flu shots at clinics across campus. From October to December, 9,750 people, including some 4,000 students, were given shots.

Finally, with winter weather already descended on Ithaca, "every person on campus has a role to play in preparing to cope effectively with upcoming severe winter weather," said Stephen Golding, the Samuel W. Bodman Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, in a campuswide e-mail delivered Dec. 5. He urged all managers and staff to plan ahead for inclement weather by clarifying which staff are expected to report if the university closes and by discussing concerns about travel and family issues in advance.

"It is heartening to realize that so much has been and continues to be done to protect the heath and safety of our campus population," McDaniel said. "What is even more gratifying is the generous spirit of the several hundred participants who have generously sacrificed their time and talent to bring these important initiatives to fruition. That's the kind of people we have here at Cornell."