The University is unveiling a new service to communicate with students in the event of an emergency – through their desktops.

In the next several days, GW’s Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management will release downloadable software that will provide students with critical information on their computer toolbar during an emergency. Administrators said it is another resource to communicate with students in addition to the text message alerts and Campus Advisories Web site already available.

The service is based on software developed for the University and will be called GW Alert.

“This is the most precise way to get information, the fastest way to reach people, and I really think it’s the best technology we have,” said John Petrie, assistant vice president for Public Safety and Emergency Management.

The system consists of graphic alerts and text crawls that run across the computer screen, as well as a siren noise that is triggered to immediately inform GW community members of emergencies.

The University is constantly looking at new technologies, Petrie said. The software first became available last summer, and the University decided to purchase it in early September.

“As an intellectual and academic hub in the heart of the nation’s capital, the need for immediate communication with the GW community is greater now than ever,” said Student Association President Nicole Capp in a news release.

Emergency alert programs already in place do not transmit information fast enough, Petrie said.

“(GW Alert) is going to be the best way we can reach the largest number of people,” Petrie said. “We can reach them and we control the timing of reaching, where we can’t with Alert DC because it’s controlled with the cell phone provider.”

All messages in GW Alert will link to the Campus Advisories page, where people can get information about the status of the University. Petrie said they want to get more people to the site.

The software also provides weather forecasts, which Terence Thomas said will give people more incentive to use it.

“We wanted to build this system around something that’s sticky, something that students will need every day – like weather,” Thomas said.

Petrie’s office will produce the subject matter of the alerts, and University Relations is in charge of the actual text entry.

“I hope I’ll never have to use it,” Petrie said, “but if I do, I have more confidence than ever before that I will reach people.”