RAPID CITY S.D.
Action is needed sooner rather than later, the Board of Regents has told a task force formed to find ways public universities can improve their emergency alert systems to quickly get information to students.
“This isn’t something we can study for two years,” regents President Harvey Jewett said last week when the board met in Rapid City. “If we’re doing nothing but holding meetings and something happens, we’ll look like idiots.”
The task force has been asked to possibly form a system-wide process for all schools to use.
Issues include cost, coordinating with community emergency officials and trying to rein in each school as they look for their own answers.
It’s not too late to find money for a new emergency alert system, Jewett said. “But, we have to have a number, and the sooner, the better,” he said.
Monte Kramer, the regents’ vice president for administrative services, said the task force could have a preliminary recommendation by the board’s December meeting.
