Boston University has a new prerequisite for every course it offers: text messaging. Emergency text messaging, to be specific. Students who don't sign up for the university's emergency text messaging system can't register for Spring semester classes.

The mandatory text messaging program gives BU the most rigid policy in the U.S. for that method of campus security. "Use of these systems, most of which were put in place this semester, are overwhelmingly voluntary and are largely an outgrowth of the Virginia Tech massacre in which a gunman killed 32 people and then himself," writes Jenny Paul at BostonNOW.




So far BU's mandatory policy has resulted in 74% of the university's students signing up. Neighboring Boston College and nearby Northeastern both have voluntary emergency text messaging service and about 80% of students at each institution have signed up.