Winter weather in Waynesburg is at times unforgiving and unexpected, but Waynesburg University has adopted Everbridge to deal with these situations, along with many others similar to that of the issue of inclement weather.

James Tanda, director of Security Operations And Emergency Management, introduced Everbridge to the University over five years ago to replace the previous system.

“Everbridge mass notification system is a global emergency alert broadcast system that provides near real-time notification to large amounts of people in an emergency situation or crisis situation when we need to get out information to people regarding public safety, or campus wise alerts such as closures, delays, all sorts of incidents that would warrant the attention of the full campus.”

According to Tanda, it’s a multimodal communication system which means emergency information can be broadcasted across multiple platforms. Everyone on campus who has a waynesburg.edu email address can receive these notifications when there are emergencies like a possible active shooter event, a chemical leak or inclement weather that would cause classes to be canceled.

“It is very important that students and employees get these notifications as fast and as accurately as we can send them out.”

These notifications are also sent out via SMS text as well. Students and faculty can acquire these by updating their phone information in the Everbridge portal on Myconnect.

If a person is not able to receive texts or emails for any reason, Waynesburg sends out recorded verbal messaging as well. It is basically a phone call. 

Everbridge is a system used for convenience for the University, so the next time there is any extreme weather, emergency or information that needs to be sent out to the campus, students can get it through a simple notification on their phone, laptop or any other device.