Case Study: High Point University achieves enhanced emergency preparedness and campus safety with Omnilert

America’s Safe Campus High Point University Preparing for a Worst Case Scenario

High Point University, a residential campus of roughly 4,500 undergraduates with 19 residence halls, needed a simple, redundant way to notify students and staff overnight and on weekends in the event of an emergency. To meet that challenge HPU selected Omnilert’s emergency notification and critical communications solution in early 2015 so dispatchers could rapidly communicate during worst-case scenarios.

Omnilert was deployed with a crisis communications team (about a dozen trained dispatchers), prebuilt Scenarios (active shooter, tornado, lockdown/all clear), and a two-tiered messaging approach—Panther Alert for immediate-action mass alerts and Panther Advisory for text/email advisories—integrated with speakers, campus phones, computers and external partners. The system is regularly tested with semester drills and tabletop exercises, has enabled one‑click launches of critical messages to the campus community of ~4,500 people, and proved effective during a recent tornado watch, giving HPU confidence in Omnilert’s reliability and reduced operator burden.

High Point University

Gus Porter

Environmental Health Safety & Preparedness Manager