Universities Adopt Everbridge “Return to Campus” Solution

University of Denver, College of Charleston among schools to leverage COVID-19 Shield: Contact tracing software to help reintegrate students onto campus during Coronavirus threat.

The University of Denver, among other colleges, has selected the Everbridge, Inc.’s COVID-19 Shield software solution ahead of the start of the Fall semester, to more safely welcome back to campus nearly 9,000 students, faculty, and administrative staff amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. With Everbridge’s full suite of “Return To Campus” technology – including Contact Tracing, Wellness Checks, and Location Monitoring to adhere to recommended crowd capacity guidelines – colleges and universities can assure parents, students, and staff that they are taking all steps necessary to safeguard their people and resume their operations.

contact tracingAs higher education navigates the prolonged impact of COVID-19 on campuses, schools face a series of unprecedented challenges – how to quickly inform students, faculty, and staff of potential coronavirus risks; how to comply with Clery Act guidelines requiring timely warnings of exposure and follow-up reporting; and how to cope with lost revenue from closures and the lack of sporting and other large events on campus. Everbridge’s solution helped colleges and universities reopen earlier this year while digitally transforming the process to monitor potential exposures and effectively communicate across all key stakeholders, all while protecting student, faculty, and staff privacy.

At the University of Denver (DU), nearly three-quarters of students who are back on campus downloaded the Everbridge mobile app for Contact Tracing and Wellness Checks. Since September 15, the DU Contact Tracing team received approximately 70 exposure notifications from the app.

“As you know, New York City became a hotspot,” explained Hector Batista, Executive Vice Chancellor and COO of The City University of New York, during Everbridge’s Autumn 2020 “COVID-19 R2R: The Road to Recovery” virtual leadership symposium. “Right at the heart of everything we do is the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. Learning needs to take place in a safe environment. It is critical to focus on ensuring that you’re adapting to the changing environment, that you are constantly monitoring the health conditions of the campus.”

The College of Charleston in South Carolina plans to expand its usage of Everbridge to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and keep the campus community informed. Students, faculty and staff use the Everbridge mobile app to conduct daily Wellness Checks and self-report possible infection. The college recently announced it will soon begin using the platform to also issue text, email, and phone alerts to the campus, as well as to parents, neighbors, and visitors. Cougar Alerts provide important information, instructions and updates about emergencies occurring on or near school grounds.

Whitman College in Washington State and Alcorn State University in Mississippi also join the growing list of higher institutions turning to new technologies to adapt to the changing landscape.

As Alcorn explains in its A Brave Start initiative: “During this pandemic, staying safe for not only others but also yourself has become imperative. Alcorn State University has selected Everbridge to support our efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Everbridge … allows the health center to conduct quicker and more effective symptom monitoring and contact tracing.”

Along with these forward-thinking schools, the many colleges and universities leveraging Everbridge’s Critical Event Management solutions include UCLA, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, University of Maryland College Park, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Austin, Michigan State University, and Washington State University. Internationally, notable schools that deploy Everbridge solutions include Nord University in Norway, Technical University of Denmark, Imperial College London, and the American University of Paris.

“We remain deeply committed to supporting the efforts of campus safety professionals as their jobs become increasingly difficult and complex during these extraordinary times,” said Erin Edwards, Senior Director of Higher Education at Everbridge. “Institutions like the University of Denver, the College of Charleston, and many others have taken important steps in giving students, staff, visitors and parents peace of mind that they will be safe at school.”

In addition to higher education, over 5,400 businesses, governments, and healthcare organizations currently rely on Everbridge’s CEM Platform to assess threats, monitor the wellbeing of their workforce, rapidly communicate warnings, and protect supply chains. Since the pandemic began, Everbridge customers have used its software to send more than 875 million coronavirus-related communications with vital information and instructions to safeguard their populations, employees, patients and students.

Everbridge’s recent two-day Autumn 2020 “COVID-19 R2R: The Road to Recovery” leadership symposium addressed global best practices to reopen economies amid COVID-19, while safely returning people to public spaces, offices and campuses. Tens of thousands of senior executives, government officials and healthcare experts from 150 countries attended Everbridge’s R2R summits this year.

The October event featured keynote addresses by the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Director of the NIAID at NIH Dr. Anthony Fauci, Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson, and included presentations by educational leaders Jay Gogue, President of Auburn University and Hector Batista, Executive Vice Chancellor and COO of The City University of New York (CUNY).

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