Communication technology and campus safety: Critical sociotechnical concerns for emergency messaging at Canadian universities

This paper raises and explores some of socio-technical dimensions of emergency messaging at Canadian post-secondary educational institutions. It sets out an investigative framework based on related research and reports on findings from a National Roundtable on Campus Emergency Messaging held at the University of Alberta in November 2007. The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech have led many post-secondary educational institutions to introduce new emergency messaging capabilities to enhance campus safety. About 1.5-million students attend Canadian universities and colleges, so the life safety concerns of a large community of interest is affected by these developments. However, there is growing concern among various stakeholders that these new systems are being acquired without the benefit of research into the human, policy and legal factors that ultimately influence the effectiveness of emergency messaging technologies. This paper conceptualizes these factors as complex sociotechnical concerns, assesses their validity against findings from early investigative work, and establishes priorities for ongoing research.