As students arrive, Cal sets up new campus warning system

C-Berkeley welcomed students this week with a three-day party in the gymnasium and reassured their anxious parents with a new high-tech warning system.

For several days, new and returning students to the University of California’s flagship berkeley campus have been welcomed with “Caltopia,” a party held in the main gym on bancroft Way. musical performers and members of the school’s martial arts clubs put on demonstrations to wow the students, while sponsors like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: appl) and San Francisco mobile message service Kadoink set up booths and tables or hung up banners to pitch products.

But perhaps remembering angry criticism of school response following the shooting massacre at virginia polytechnic institute and State University in April 2007, Cal put a new “alerting and warning service” in place Monday.

The service, called “warnme,” can contact people via phone, text message or e-mail if there’s an earthquake, accident, disaster or shooter on campus. This is aimed not only at anxious parents, but also at students who might be unaware of any threat nearby.

warnme is an opt-in program, which means people must choose to sign up for it, and they must have a campus identification number to do so. About 11,200 people have signed up so far, the school said. They can choose to be warned on up to seven different devices.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 |

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