The tragedy at Virginia Tech had two parts. It began with two deaths in a residence hall at 7:15 a.m. Two hours later, half a mile away, the same shooter claimed 30 more victims.

The death toll at the second shooting may have been lower if everyone on the VT campus knew about the first attack.

Their administration had tried to let students know using a mass emailing system, but they were too slow.

The first email was sent out nine minutes after that second shooting had already started.

Let’s assume that the U of I can move faster than Virginia Tech and send out a MASSMAIL minutes after a shooting occurs.

Even so, how much of campus would know that a shooter was loose in the time it took him to walk from Peabody to Foellinger Auditorium?

The students rushing to Foellinger for class would not know that they were walking toward danger, because they cannot check their email on the way.

They may, however, be able to receive a text message on their phones.

The U of I already collects cell phone numbers from all of its students.

It would be a simple thing to make a system that could, with the authorization of the university administration or campus police, send out a text message to every text message-enabled cell phone that is on campus.

That message would be decided upon by the proper authorities depending on their judgment of the situation.

It could be as simple as: “Shots fired at Peabody. Do not come to campus. If in class, lock doors, stay away from windows, and wait for the all clear.”

Since text messaging is not free and text messaging plans are not a University resource, students, faculty and staff would need to be able to opt out of such a system.

They could do so in the same way that they opt out from having their information published in the University phonebook.

If you think this is a good idea and would like to see it implemented by the university, we ask you to sign our petition.

If you have a Facebook account, simply search for “Emergency Text Message System” and join the group so you can sign the petition.

If you are not on Facebook, and do not wish to be, send a message of support to

[email protected].

If enough people are in favor, we will ask the University to look at implementing this, or a similar system, to help keep us as safe as possible.