SPRINGFIELD - As students and faculty at Northern Illinois University grapple with the aftermath of Thursday's shootings that left five students dead, other universities in Illinois and Missouri are still evaluating and trying to improve their emergency notification systems so they can reach students if a shooting or other campus-wide disaster occurs.

However, while universities are utilizing technology such as text messaging and e-mail to alert students of dangers on campus, not all students are taking advantage of the new systems.

Following the Virginia Tech shootings last year, colleges and universities around the country reviewed their emergency procedures. Some implemented strategies that include text messaging, voice messages and e-mails to inform students and faculty of campus-wide emergencies.

Northern Illinois University, located in DeKalb, posted information to its Web site and left voice messages on campus phones, but did not use a text messaging alert system that many colleges and universities started to employ following the shootings in Virginia.

SIU developing messaging

At the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses of Southern Illinois University, campus officials are putting the finishing touches on text messaging alert systems that will allow students to receive alerts on their cell phones.

Scott Charton, spokesman for the University of Missouri system, said that all four campuses implemented an alert system last fall that can send messages by phone, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, pager, fax and BlackBerry devices.

However, Charton said the university system, which has about 64,000 students, is not satisfied with the number of students who have signed up. Currently, 12,683 students have signed up for cell phone voice alerts, 2,428 for text messaging.

Charton said he is unsure why more students have not signed up for the service, but added that the university is constantly promoting the system in hopes of signing up additional people.

In contrast, about 60 percent of the 11,000 students at St. Louis University have signed up to receive emergency alerts by voice or text message. The university alerts can be sent out from any computer with an Internet connection in the event that the administration's computers crashed.

However, campus officials said they too would like to see more students signing up for the alert system.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton of Washington University in St. Louis sent an e-mail Friday reminding students and faculty that an email system is already in place in case of an emergency but urged them to sign up for cell phone text message alerts.