Raising Expectations
In the continued expansion of my duties at work, I have been assigned/volunteered to be the back for the the webmaster when it comes to emergency notification. This really gets me in deep with the what is happening. Essentially, if the webmaster is out of contact, I get the call to push out changes to the webpage/text messages. A lot of responsibility for lowly ole me.
The interesting thing about this is I get to be involved in the discussions surrounding the implementation of these emergency contact systems
In this vein, I have to discuss the false raising of expectations.
While trying to get our text message system up and running, the concept of a parents list has been heavy on everyone’s mind, specifically in the aftermath of Virginia Tech. Our definition of the parents list is exactly the same as a concerned member of the populace, no verification of child enrollment, no distinction in mesages sent.
I have a real problem with this approach, it raises the expectations of parents, leading them to believe that they will get special messages. This is false based on the protocols that have been established for text messages. With out divulging any secret information, parents will always have a different definition of a emergency that warrants a text message than the emergencies that have been defined. By creating a parents list, we are feeding that impression, which will create a problem the first time there is a “major” crisis.
By raising expectations, without increasing communications, we are making our chances of failure greater
The general intention of an emergency notification system is in the right place, but I question its relevance in a true emergency — assuming it works as planned, of course. Given the ubiquity of mobile communications (cell phones, etc.) I am inclined to believe students themselves would have a near-instantaneous response to a disaster, communicating in real-time and spreading the initial reports and updates virally; and all this would take place likely while administrative leaders are still trying to decide what to communicate and via which available channel(s). The students (and in some cases faculty and staff) will always react more quickly, even though their communication is fragmented. Although nothing can take the place of an “official” communication from the institution, by the time such communications reach those concerned, they may already be irrelevant. I think of the speed at which blogs communicate news, while we have to wait until the next day to see it in the newspapers.