SEAN BLACKWELL – The Corsair
Pensacola State College recently received two public safety grants that funded the new flat screens seen across the three campuses. The flat screens’ primary purpose is to provide campus safety alerts for all students and faculty, although they will serve a secondary purpose: advertising campus, student club, and sporting events.
According to Debbie Douma, institutional research and grants director for Pensacola State, the majority of funding for the Warrington and Pensacola campus came from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. The Edward Byrne Grant was applied for through Escambia County.
A second grant applied for through the Florida Domestic Security Project was applied to the flat screen installation for the Milton campus. These grants were specifically designated for improving safety around the campuses. Tom Gilliam, student affairs vice president, feels the choice of using flat screens to get the message to students and faculty is a much more practical use of the money as opposed to a campus wide intercom system.
Gilliam and Douma are currently working with Carolyn Phillips in the information and technology department to establish pre-made templates for a range of possible emergencies on campus. When an emergency occurs on campus, the television speakers will sound and the screen will run the corresponding template on a loop. This will interrupt any advertising or promotion that is running at the time.
Plans for using the screens to market events has not been developed yet. An organization wanting to advertise should contact Carolyn Phillips in the IT department to learn when this function will be available.