Photo by Jeff Watts

A bomb threat has been called in, a suspicious package has been found on campus, or severe weather is approaching. How would you get the message and know where to go and what to do in these situations? American University has partnered with Sprint and Rave Wireless to offer a new emergency broadcast alert system, specific to our community, called AU Campus Connect.  Subscription to this service is free at www.getrave.com.

AU Campus Connect is a mobile device program designed specifically to help members of our community stay safe, informed, and connected.  The AU Campus Connect mobile device program offers many other exciting options on a subscription basis specifically for Sprint customers.  Some of the available applications are:

• Rave Guardian—send your GPS location to AU's campus police (specific mobile devices are required)
• Rave Transit—track the location of the AU shuttle buses via GPS

AU Chief of Public Safety, Michael McNair, was instrumental in bringing this initiative to campus.  He proudly explained:

"Here at AU, we are committed to making the campus more safe and secure for our students, staff, and faculty.  The AU Campus Connect program is just one tool that we can use to help achieve that goal.  With AU Campus Connect, members of the AU community can use their cell phone to maintain vital connections with AU security and safety services, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, on and off campus.

At Public Safety, we are extremely excited about this technological innovation, and we believe it will become the new model for other campuses in the future.  We invite all students, staff, and faculty to sign up for AU Campus Connect and join us in our quest to make the campus safer."

This project took well over a year of comprehensive planning and execution to ensure the best possible service for our community.  In total, OIT staff spent more than 2,000 hours to install and configure the wiring and infrastructure to support this project.