Send Word Now successfully contacted 15,518 members of the Tufts community through SMS messages, phone calls and e-mails during its test run yesterday, according to Associate Director of Public Relations Alex Reid.
"We were really pleased," said Dawn Irish, the associate director of outreach for University Information Technology (UIT). "We felt that it went very, very well."
Based on the preliminary results, 98 percent of the people signed up for Send Word Now received notification messages.
According to Irish, it remains unclear why the test did not have a 100 percent success rate.
"It looked as if there were various reasons," she said. "Those are details that we'll review over the next couple of days."
While some of the problems were potentially technical, others may be beyond the control of UIT, such as calls that went unanswered.
SMS, or text, messages were sent out shortly after 11 a.m. Eight thousand of these were successfully relayed in three minutes.
A total of 8,147 text messages went out over eight minutes, according to Reid.
"The text messages seemed to be the quickest way that people were alerted," he said.
Following the SMS messages, e-mails were sent to everyone, even people who had not signed up for Send Word Now. "If you have a Tufts.edu address, then you automatically got an e-mail," Irish said.
In nine minutes, 19,059 e-mails were sent through the Tufts e-mail system and to any personal e-mail addresses people may have provided.
Phone calls were the final mode of notification. Many people who registered gave more than one number at which they could be reached. As a result, 16,102 phone calls were made in 24 minutes.
If for some reason someone did not pick up or the number did not go to voicemail, a second attempt was made. Both rounds of calling were completed within 39 minutes.
Reid stressed that these numbers were preliminary and therefore "apt to change at least a little bit."
While text messages emerged as the quickest way to reach people, "other methods worked very well as well," Irish said.
Still, Irish and Reid both believe it is best for community members to allow Send Word Now to contact them via as many outlets as possible.
Another invitation will be sent out soon to everybody to allow more people to sign up and to let people who are already registered add more contact points.
The Office of Public Safety sent a survey out to all members of the Tufts community yesterday afternoon to get feedback about the test.
Although the deadline for the survey is Nov. 21, some people have already responded.
"So far that response has been very positive," Reid said.
At the time of the test, 60 percent of the Tufts faculty, students and staff on all three campuses were registered for the program, Irish said.
The test went out to people on all three campuses, but if an emergency only affected one place, this would not necessarily be the case.
"The system does have the capability to send a message to one, two or all three campuses," Reid said.
