Local colleges are increasingly taking advantage of expanding information technologies to promote campus safety.

Chattahoochee Technical College, which has campuses in Canton and Woodstock, recently implemented a mass emergency communication system to reach students on their cellphones.

Through the e2Campus system powered by Washington-based Omnilert, students, faculty and staff can sign up to receive notifications on their computers and cellphones via email, voicemail and text message.

"The system was brought in to advise the student body and staff primarily if a large emergency event occurs," said Willis Wade, the school's director of public safety. "We all hope we will have very little use for it, but it can't be substituted."

Chattahoochee Tech participants can register unlimited phone numbers and email addresses allowing students to include parents' information as well.

They can also set a date to remove their information from the database.

A select group of administrators have access to the online system where they can send out messages to notify students of important safety information - including emergency situations, severe weather updates and school closings due to weather.

The system also can direct messages to a specific campus or the entire network.

About 1,000 people have opted into the system since its launch in January.

The school has run test message, but otherwise has not sent any alerts.

"When you're in college, you have a lot of distractions," Wade said. "This is just a way to quickly get everyone's attention."

Started in 2003, e2Campus was the first campus mass emergency notification system on the market, CEO Ara Bagdasarian said.

"This February, over six million messages were sent within 24 hours due to the severe winter weather that covered half of the U.S.," he said. "This past weekend, a university in Florida had a shooting and used e2Campus to warn the student population while providing a description of the vehicle the shooter used to flee in."

Reinhardt University in Waleska has been using e2Campus with its EagleAlert system since 2008.

Students, faculty and staff can register as many as two phone numbers and two email addresses to receive messages.

Dr. Roger Lee, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said the school had noticed colleges across the country implementing similar systems.

"We thought this was the best tool to serve us," he said, noting about one-third of the campus population is registered.

So far, EagleAlert has been used for school closures due to snow and icy conditions, tornado warnings and power outages.

Along with confidence in the e2Campus effectiveness, both schools have frequent reviews of safety procedures and protocol.

"We revise it annually," Lee said. "What we're doing right now is working with Robby Westbrook [director of the Cherokee Sheriff's Office Division of Emergency Management] and other local law enforcement."

The school's detailed emergency plan, he said, covers everything from gas leaks to airplane crashes.

Wade said Chattahoochee Tech similarly revisits its plans on a regular basis.

"We also take considerations as to what's going on in the public," he said. "I get up in morning and try to read the news and get daily facts to see what's going on."

Both schools have also taken other measures in recent years to improve campus safety.

In addition to EagleAlert, Reinhardt reactivated a broadcast system in the Bratton Carillon on the Waleska campus.

With the speakers, administrators can play recorded messages, such as during a tornado warning, or call in by telephone to send a specialized message.

So far, the school has not had to use the broadcast speaker.

The school also began installing emergency call boxes around school grounds last year. Lee said there are currently five, but plans are to add more.

At Chattahoochee Tech, Wade said the administration created a student and faculty identification card system as it faces increasing enrollment.

"We have procedures in place that cover a multitude of events," Wade said. "It's a lengthy list detailed right down to who does what."