Campus News in Brief
Students to attend eco-conference
Members of Sustainable Earth, Carnegie Mellon’s student environmental organization, will travel to Power Shift 2007, an environmental summit where thousands of young people from across the country will discuss global warming and other environmental issues facing the world today. The summit will take place at the University of Maryland from Nov. 2 to 5.
It will feature several days of workshops, panel discussions, lectures, and special-guest speeches from leading activists in the field. Experts and students will discuss how to build a clean-energy economy, achieve energy independence, create millions of green jobs, increase global equity, and revitalize the American economy. The summit will culminate with a trip to the Capitol building where young activists will conduct lobby visits and rally on the steps to promote the 1Sky Campaign, which aims to increase the amount of green jobs, reduce carbon pollution levels, and prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Sustainable Earth is a student group whose goal is to bring attention to environmental problems and create ways for Carnegie Mellon administration and students to help solve these problems. The group also takes part in environmental community service projects and environmental education for the campus community.
The group from Carnegie Mellon will travel on a bus to meet up with other youth activists in Washington, D.C. For more information about the summit or to register to attend, contact campus coordinator Alicia Marrie at (amarrie@).
AlertNow introduces text option
Carnegie Mellon’s recently instated emergency notification service, AlertNow, is now offering a text messaging option. Once students register their phone numbers in the system, AlertNow will send them a voice mail or text message when an event that threatens public safety occurs on or around campus.
The university instituted AlertNow to alert the campus community in the event of an emergency. The system sends frequent updates, providing information on relocation procedures and evacuation plans. It sends a final update when the advisory is lifted.
The emergency alert system was adopted after the shooting tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech. AlertNow makes it possible for Carnegie Mellon’s Environmental Health & Safety department to make 5000 calls in about one minute to alert all registered users in the case of an emergency.
The system has been used several times since the beginning of the school year. In August, the university received bomb threats targeting Doherty Hall and the Mellon Institute. Students, faculty, and staff received several updates via AlertNow as University Police evacuated and performed searches on both buildings.
The system was also used in September when a water main break in Oakland caused the campus and surrounding neighborhoods to lose water. AlertNow provided updates on the repairs as well as information on where to get bottled water on campus.
To sign up for AlertNow, visit (my.cmu.edu/site/main/page.alert).