Missouri University of Science and Technology is adding an extra incentive
to encourage more students, faculty and staff to register for its emergency
alert system. People who register by noon on Tuesday, Jan. 29, will be
automatically entered into a drawing to receive a $75 gift certificate from the
Missouri S&T Bookstore.

The campuswide registration appeal for the service comes ahead of plans to
test the new system at 12:05 p.m. on Jan. 30. During the Jan. 30 exercise,
everyone who has registered will receive a brief test message via voice mail or
text message. Those who haven’t registered will have a similar message sent to
their university email address.

“Only about 35 percent of the campus has registered since we activated the
system in November,” says Karl Lutzen, information security officer at Missouri
S&T. “We’d really like to see a lot more people sign up before our test at
the end of this month to help ensure that the system would work properly in
case of an actual emergency.”

The emergency notification system was installed in November 2007 as an added
measure of security after several tragic campus incidents across the United
States. The system, which is in use on all four University of Missouri
campuses, gives authorized administrators the ability to send pre-recorded
voice or text messages to everyone on campus via phone, text message or email,
thus helping to provide up-to-the-minute information and safety instructions
during an emergency.

The prize drawing will occur after the test on Jan. 30 and the winner will
be notified by telephone or email.

For step-by-step instructions on how to update personal information in the
emergency alert database, visit http://it.mst.edu/generalinfo/emergencyalert.html.
For more information or help with the registration process, call the Missouri
S&T IT Help Desk at 573-341-4357.