In the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, the University completed a major overhaul of its campus safety policies. As part of the effort, administrators installed an emergency alert system with sirens across campus, text message notifications and a Web site dedicated to emergency information.

Although the University has not had to use the emergency system for a major crisis, it has been utilized to notify students about on-campus crime and to provide updates during severe weather events like last weekend’s snowstorm that crippled much of the Triangle area.

So far, the emergency system has fared well. Text message DukeAlerts have been consistently sent out, most recently on Friday night to announce that the University was activating its severe weather policy.

During last weekend’s storm, the University also updated its emergency Web site to communicate with students, faculty and staff members as well as post information about reduced operating hours for campus services.

While the Web site did contain accurate and relevant information, the site itself was difficult to locate and troublesome to navigate. It’s no surprise then, that many students had no idea that the University’s bus system had shut down after 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday nights and that no SafeRides would be available, leaving these students stranded on East and West Campuses.

In the future, the emergency Web site should be better publicized, and information should be easier to locate. Even if the right information is there, it is of no use if students and staff can’t find it.

For those not registered to receive emergency text message alerts, however, communication was a mixed bag. On Friday night, Larry Moneta sent an e-mail out to the student body announcing that a severe weather emergency had been declared. The only problem was that the e-mail was not successfully sent, and no undergraduate students were notified.

This e-mail snafu was not the first. In recent weeks, multiple e-mails sent by Moneta have not been properly delivered to students. Whether the e-mail mix-ups have been caused by human error or the messages have mysteriously been lost in the tubes of the Internet, the University needs to find out what went wrong and fix it. If a message is important enough to be sent out to the entire student body, then it must be delivered properly.

Looking at the bigger picture, the University also ought to establish clearer guidelines to determine when students are alerted and what they are alerted about. Currently, the Clery Act of 1990, a federal law, mandates that universities issue timely warnings about crimes that pose an immediate threat to students and employees. As far as we know, the University has a done an excellent job alerting students for incidents specified by the Clery Act.

Some incidents, however, fall outside the technical reporting requirements of the act, but students would still benefit knowing about them. Crimes immediately off campus or near popular off-campus apartment complexes and social venues are relevant to students, and the University should consider formulating a policy to determine when to alert students of these types of incidents.

Finally, the University should make an effort to enhance awareness of the emergency text message system. Making the program opt-out (it is currently opt-in), would ensure that all students would receive critical communications, especially during times of crisis.