After the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007, campus safety became a major issue across the country. Stemming from that was UK Alert, the university’s emergency notification system.

According to a Kernel article last Tuesday, Christy Giles, director of emergency management at UK, said the system was only used to notify users if “immediate action is required” or  if there is a “major disruption to campus operations.” Listed as examples for alerts were explosions, hostage situations and campus closures.

While this is a great step, the campus community is usually not notified by UK Alert of abductions, rapes or other crimes of this nature if the emergencies occur outside the university’s jurisdiction. When students’ lives could possibly be in danger, how is this not a “major disruption?”

Even when there is a major occurrence on or off campus, UK Alert will issue messages on a “best effort” basis, according to the UK Alert Web site. Best effort? When there is an emergency and it could affect students, we have the right to know what is happening on, and around, our campus. Students shouldn’t get a “best effort.” They deserve results in those situations and in a timely manner.

When a Lexington woman was abducted near Waller Avenue and Elizabeth Street between the hours of 2:30 and 3:45 a.m. on Sept. 5, a campus-wide e-mail was not sent out until 6:45 that night.

Many students found out about the abduction from local news media before anything was sent out from the university or UK Police. Besides, how many students honestly check their school e-mail on a Friday night?

With UK Alert, a text message would have gone directly to subscribers’ cell phones no matter their location. This would have reiterated the importance of caution and safety to everyone.

Yet another UK Alert flaw is the fact that it is only used when an event happens on campus. Is the safety of off-campus students not equally important because they don’t pay outrageous prices to live in inadequate (aside from the four new dorms) university housing?

How do you define “on campus,” anyway? UK has property throughout the city of Lexington from the Student Center on Avenue of Champions to the Coldstream Research Campus on Newtown Pike.

If Waller Avenue and Elizabeth Street are not considered on campus, why are they on campus maps? The boundaries of campus are not very well defined.

Giles also mentions that UK does not want students to disregard the system, which is why they don’t send alerts for every incident. While this is understandable, an abduction, or similar crime should not be taken lightly by administration, police or students.

If a student is upset by a minimal text message fee when a fellow student’s life could be in danger, maybe they should reconsider signing up for UK Alert in the first place.

UK Alert is a step in the right direction for the university, but there are still many noticeable flaws and plenty of improvements that need to be made. With a little more time and effort put into the program, it has the potential to be a top-notch system and could possibly save lives.