Check your inbox ‘ your next text message might be from a police chief.

In an effort to avoid the communication problems that occurred during April’s shooting at Virginia Tech, Binghamton University has overhauled its campus safety strategy, implementing new technology and emergency-response methods.

‘We took a two-prong approach,’ said Deputy Chief of Police of Binghamton’s New York State University Police Tim Faughnan. ‘What can we do using what we have in place and are there new things we need.’

Faughnan and BU’s Emergency Manager David Hubeny have spearheaded the project to ensure safety on campus.

In the event of a campus emergency, staff and students have multiple ways of receiving emergency instructions.

The campus’ ‘Snow Line,’ the hot line originally used to inform students of snow delays, has been converted to the BU Alert Line. Calling (607)777-7700 gives the listener a recorded message of what to do in an emergency.

The University has installed a steam whistle atop the campus’s heating plant and also has the ability to put a unique tone to the bell chimes that resonate from the top of the Library Tower.

Administrators with two-way radios and glow sticks are now assigned to every building in the event of an emergency.

But Faughnan and Hubeny are also integrating more modern approaches to further speed the spread of information.

Over the summer, Telecommunications purchased a system that can send text messages with emergency instructions to students. But the system is ‘opt-in’ only, according to Faughnan, who urges students to enroll as soon as possible.

Officials can also send out mass e-mails and automatically direct computer users to a web page with emergency information.

The University has installed digital message boards in the dining halls and on Center Drive that can display emergency instructions. Another board will be built by the Bunn Hill entrance to the campus.

But these precautions won’t only be used in the event of a shooting. The University’s goal is to be prepared to respond to emergencies ranging from tornadoes to plane crashes.

‘The Virginia Tech thing is not just a Virginia Tech thing,’ Faughnan said. ‘This approach we have for handling emergencies is an all hazards approach.’

This semester, Faughnan and Hubeny may conduct a campus-wide ‘fire drill’ using the recently implemented emergency services.

‘I hope in the coming weeks to do a big test of all this,’ Faughnan said.

While Faughnan and Hubeny are at the forefront of this push for safety for Binghamton, they are not the only ones involved in the process.

Since the shooting, faculty and staff, wanting ‘to be better prepared’ have met with Faughnan upon request.

The University Counseling Center has continued ‘our liaison meetings with Residential Life (biweekly meetings and as needed), our contacts with the athletic department, student groups and others,’ said director Dr. Elizabeth Droz.

Faculty and staff have already been consulting with the center ‘when a student is of concern or writes something that is ‘off the mark,’ she said. The center has posted guides and information on responding to troubled students on its Web site.

Residential life staff goes through extensive training at the beginning of each year to help them better identify students that may need medical help.

Harpur’s Ferry, the campus’s student-run ambulance corps, could not be reached for comment.

Parents have a say in the matter, too. This summer, campus officials split the wellness and safety panel at freshman orientation into two separate panels.

‘We knew parents would have a lot of questions about campus safety,’ said Kenneth Holmes, assistant vice president for student life. ‘We thought orientation would be a good vehicle for getting the information out to new students.’

The panels on safety ‘ which included David Hubeny and members from University police, residential life, the counseling center and Harpur’s Ferry ‘ tackled usual subjects, like computer theft, and current questions, like, ‘What would happen at Binghamton if we had an active shooter on campus, how would we get information out to students if we had a situation like that on campus and what are we doing differently in terms of safety,’ said Holmes, who moderated some of the six panels this summer.

‘I was impressed that they were so on top of the situation,’ said Marcia Sikowitz, Binghamton University alumna and mother of an incoming freshman. ‘[The sessions] were very helpful and informative in terms of allaying my fears about how a campus would react if a student was mentally ill or acting strange.’

But Sikowitz, who graduated in 1973, never had a concern for safety when she lived in Hinman College.

‘I don’t recall seeing or having any contact with campus police,’ she said. ‘During the day the dorms were not locked.’

Another parent at the orientation, Detective Lieutenant John Taylor of the local Vestal Police Department, has no qualms sending his son to Binghamton this year, he said.

‘[The University has] a constant level of professionalism ‘ not just as a result of Virginia Tech,’ he said.