Universities Weblog

Syracuse University used its "Orange Alert" system for the first time on Tuesday, according to the Central New York News.

According to the paper Anthony Callisto Jr., SU's director of public safety, issued the alert because he had heard a "shots fired" call on a police scanner while in his car. A 19 year old Syracuse resident had been shot at 11:30am. Kevin Quinn, SU vice president for public affairs, said the alert reached about 27,000 university students and employees via e-mail, text messaging and automated phone calls at 11:39 a.m.

A second alert was sent at 12:24pm when SU officials learned that the suspect in the shooting had headed away from campus in his vehicle

According to the paper, the alert system costs the university about $50,000 annually. It was started in response to the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech's own emergency alert system crashed earlier this month during a false alarm.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Rich Legg

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