Starting this spring, the University of Wisconsin will offer a new method of notifying students in case of a campus emergency: text messaging.

In light of the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois incidents of the past 10 months, UW has been looking at ways to expand campus alerts.

Beginning later this spring or early this summer, students, faculty and staff will be able to submit their cell phone numbers to receive alerts in case of an emergency on campus. Participants will be able to register through their MyUW account.

UW spokesperson John Lucas said the number of messages sent through the text messaging alert system will be extremely limited and only be used in the event of a campus emergency.

?The service will be reserved for the highest level of emergency and will never be used for routine information, advertising or spam,? Lucas said.

With the limited amount of messages sent, Lucas said the cost to students would be nominal.

Students are not able to sign up for the text messaging service, though, until the infrastructure for the alerts is set up and fully functioning.

While students are able to submit their cell phone numbers through the Student Center in MyUW, the database for the text message alerts will be separate. Students who submit their numbers for text alerts do not necessarily have to include their cell phone numbers in their Student Center profile.

The university also does not plan to send automated voice messages to students’ cell phones, reserving the use of the numbers strictly for text messages.

The text messaging service is just one component of a new broader program called WiscAlerts, Lucas said. Among the other services will be e-mail notification, voice mail to campus landlines and a new ?reverse 911? service.

Lucas said the reverse 911 program through Dane County will allow the university to send automated messages to landlines in a particular geographic area. For example, if a gas leak were to impact Birge Hall, the reverse 911 program could notify those with landlines only in the area of Birge Hall of the incident.

?We are trying to be as prepared as we can be,? Lucas said. ?We know there are certainly no guarantees, … but hopefully all these tools will give us the capability to respond more quickly.?

The new text messaging alerts are not meant to replace previous technological advances already part of the university?s alert program.

Last fall, the university sent campuswide e-mails to students, faculty and staff after UW Hospital locked down and when an armed robber hit a deli near Regent and Park streets. Similar campuswide e-mails will continue to be a part of WiscAlerts.

UW Communications also set up a group last year on the popular social networking site Facebook, allowing UW to send messages to members of the group in case of a campus emergency.

Lucas said a similar program worked successfully earlier this month when a gunman opened fire on the campus of Northern Illinois University. Other Big Ten Schools are using similar programs as well.

The University of Minnesota created ?TXT-U? to keep students, faculty and staff informed on ?critical campus safety information.?

UMN spokesperson Dan Wolter said the university was looking into a text messaging service about a year prior to the Virginia Tech incident. In the early stages, UMN was trying to determine the best methods of getting a hold of students in general, adding ?the holy grail of communication is trying to figure out how to reach students.?

?Then Virginia Tech happened,? Wolter said. ?For everyone, it reshaped how we approach communication with students and faculty and staff.?

Since the TXT-U program was launched, the university has used it on two incidents. The first involved a bomb threat at a lecture hall, while the other asked students to check their e-mails to read about a crime alert regarding a student held at knifepoint.

There was some internal debate at UMN over whether or not the program should have been used to simply ask users to read their e-mail. However, Wolter said the program worked in both situations.

So far, 13,000 people on the 51,000-student UMN campus have registered for the program, and Wolter hopes that number increases.

Inspiron Logistics, which Lucas said ?has a good track record,? will power the UW system as they have been doing at UMN as well.

Text messaging has several advantages but some disadvantages as well. Despite the convenience, some cell phone towers slow down message send times or become bogged down with hundreds or thousands of messages sent at once.

Lucas said by late spring or early summer, he hopes students will jump on board the new plan as it becomes available.