Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

The Relationship between Social Media and

How Campus Crisis Alerts are Communicated to Students
Natalie Niccolai &Lyssa Cunningham
Slippery Rock University

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between social media websites, Twitter and Facebook in
particular, and the way campus crisis alerts are communicated to students. First, meeting with the
Slippery Rock University Public Relations Office and the campus police, the research question
was developed. With using the survey method to research the relationship, Slippery Rock
University students were recruited to answer an online survey, and to participate in a focus
group. After analyzing the results of all the surveys and looking over the opinions of the
participants from the focus groupthere is a definite relationship between social media and the
way campus crisis alerts are communicated to students. In conclusion, it was found that it would
be useful for the university to post campus crisis alerts on social media profiles that are strictly
for the crisis alerts in addition to the current text messaging system that the university uses. For
future research, the university could create the social media profiles and test run the system to
see if it would actually be efficient.
Keywords: Social media, Facebook, Twitter, campus crisis alerts, communication,
university, college, students, two-way communication, crisis communication

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

The Relationship Between Social Media and

How Campus Crisis Alerts are Communicated to Students
A crisis is a crucial or decisive situation, and it is time of instability. It makes people feel
apprehensive and uneasy, and it can induce feelings of stress. Many think of a crisis as a natural
disaster, but a crisis is defined in several different ways. People can be in a state of crisis when
they are faced with struggles, or many can be in a crisis is they are disorganized or having
trouble with life goals. No matter the type of crisis, the safety of students and staff on college
campuses is something that should always be put first. Making sure that everyone is constantly
kept informed on crisis situations and that they are constantly updated with the newest
information can make certain situations life or death. With technology constantly changing
colleges and universities should always be looking for new ways to improve or change the ways
they communicate campus crisis alerts with the students and staff. Working with the campus
police and the Slippery Rock University Public Relations Office helped us develop our research
topic, and also supplied us with information for are study. The public relations office supplied us
with information about the past, present, and possible future ways that the university has
communicated campus crisis alerts to students. When meeting with the campus police we were
informed about the Clery Act, something that was extremely useful for our research that we had
not previously knew about. We wanted to research the relationship between social media and
how campus crisis alerts are communicated to the students, predicting that text message crisis
alerts is the most efficient way to communicate information to students and staff.

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Literature Review
In recent decades disasters such as fires, attacks, shootings, natural disasters, and more
have been greatly affecting colleges and universities around the world. Now more than ever it is
extremely crucial that theyre doing everything possible to not only keep staff and students safe,
but informed. The JeannaClery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime
Statistics Act, or the Clery Act, holds colleges and universities to very high standards when it
comes to the safety of students. The Clery Act requires any college or university that participates
in federal financial aid to provide timely warnings to students and staff if something poses a
threat to their safety.
With technologies concerning communication always changing, colleges and universities
should constantly be researching and monitoring the different ways that campus wide crisis alerts
can be sent out. They should always be looking at the systems other campuses are using, and
compare them to their own. The difference between getting an alert within a few minutes, or an
hour can ultimately mean life or death depending on the situation. Institutions should always
have a backup plan as well. In some situations it is very likely that the main communication
source could be disrupted, leaving no way to communicate with students and staff. Most
importantly, colleges and universities should always keep in mind that having the most effective
crisis communication system is more important than having the latest system. The ten scholarly
sources that we chose focus on public relations, particularly the different forms of
communication that can be used if a crisis were to arise.
The research article by Leeper and Leeper (2006)focuses on crises that occur on college
and university campuses, and the relationship that it has with the community. Two important
points that were addressed in this study were two-way communication and effective public

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

relations during a crisis. Two main questions were asked during this study, the first asking if twoway communication is important when preparing for a crisis and the second if public relations is
needed during a crisis. It is hypothesized that there is a lot of failure when it comes to
communicating effectively during a crisis without two-way communication, and in effective
public relations. For one to communicate effectively, public relations must be present. The
public relations office should be prepared for a crisis in advance. An important organization that
is described in this article is CASE which stands for the Council for the Advancement and
Support of Education, which focuses on things such as relationships with alumni.
On the other hand, two- way communication is important because it involves speaking
and listening combined. Without two-way communication there will be conflict during a crisis.
The results indicated that there is a lot of confusion in how to communicate during a crisis
because of the lack of two-way communication and effective public relations. Leeper and Leeper
suggest that universities should focus on proper techniques to communicate during any crisis. A
survey was conducted during this research at the University of Missouri Kansas City where both
of the authors teach. The surveys purpose was to see if public relations needed to be a part of a
crisis situation for communication to be effective. The results were supported by the hypothesis
that public relations office must be prepared for any crisis at any time, and the message must be
sent to students and faculty. These results confirm that characteristics like being prepared,
keeping a positive attitude, and communicating effectively, correlates to help being mentally
ready for a crisis.
Interestingly, Anatol and Applbaum (1979) studied communication in the academic
environment, and how crisis alerts are conveyed. In this study, communication methods were
researched such as written and oral communication. A communication audit was made

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atCalifornia State University for organizational crises. The sample consisted of 28 staff, 92
faculty members, and 13 students. The instrumentation consisted of an 18 item questionnaire,
which focused on several dimensions of types of communication. Some of these included
feedback, effectiveness of written information, and two-way communication. The results suggest
that many feel that written information channels such as a newsletters, bulletins, or websites are
the most effective ways to communicate during crisis situations. This main point is explained in
(Madere 2007) article. A similar theme is seen between both articles emphasizing how using a
website is effective during a crisis.
Previous research has suggested that using the universities website to communicate crisis
information is effective. Madere (2007) has drawn the distinction between effective crisis
situations via social media, and less effective strategies to communicate during a crisis. This
research article addressed how using a universities website during a tragic event is helpful.
Madere explains how her university, Southeastern Louisiana, takes on a major crisis and
emphasizes how important it was that the university had information on what to do during the
crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Two questions were addressed regarding this research, first focusing
on if colleges and universities should use the internet to send messages to the community during
any crisis, and second how many college websites have any crisis information on their website.
The results of the research indicated that out of all the college and university websites she looked
at, approximately 24 have some type of crisis information. This indicates that many colleges
dont provide students and staff with access to crisis information on the schools website. For
communicating during a crisis, universities crisis information must be fast, and easy to read.
Interestingly, this study revealed that the schools that had no crisis information on their website
are indeed located in hurricane affected areas, and that 11 out of 24 schools that had crisis

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

information on their website had directions for faculty, students, and staff who were off campus.
Feedback on a website is important in any crisis situation, and research also explains how online
chatting can be effective during a crisis. This study also mentions two-way communication and
how necessary it is during a crisis.
Mastrodicasa (2008) discussed different ways that colleges and universities send out
information to students. E-mail alerts have been extremely popular in past years, only a few
years back in 2007 research showed that 85.1% of students preferred it as their main way of
communicating with institutions (Salaway, Caruso, & Nelson, 2007). But now, schools have to
worry about whether or not students are receiving the e-mails in atimely fashion. When the
Virginia Tech tragedy took place the university sent e-mails out to students about what was
happening. Some students didnt receive the e-mail until almost 2 hours after it was sent, which
was a major problem (Vivano, 2008). Using e-mail as a form of crisis communication not only
assumes that the person receiving it constantly has access to the internet, but also that theyre
continuously checking their e-mail.
Now more than ever it is obvious that the most popular system for sending out crisis
alerts to students and staff is through text messaging. Current studies show that 99% of students
have a cell phone. Out of that 99%, 97% of those students have text messaging capabilities, so
why not communicate alerts via text message (Bohlander, Tindell, 2012)? Even though text
message alerts are fast, effective, for the most part dependable, there are some drawbacks. When
colleges and universities send out a mass text, depending on how many students its going to and
how many different service providers, the message could potentially take a while to get to
phones across campus. Also, if the suspect of the crime is a student or a staff member it is very
likely that they could receive the alert, which may give them valuable information that would put

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students and staff in harms way. Most, if not all of the text message alert system have an opt-in
or opt-out feature, meaning you have to subscribe to the system in order to receive the alerts. A
lot of schools are not only having problems getting students to opt in to the service, but also with
the people who do subscribe doing it incorrectly (Violino, 2008).
West Virginia University chose to create a DSN (digital signage network) for their
campus, another type of crisis communication approach. DSNs are large screens that are
connected to computers or a type of hidden device, and are hung up in popular locations around
WVUs campus. They hired people to develop messages to display on the DSNs so that students
are informed about different events. If a crisis were to happen on or around WVUs campus, the
staff hired to control the DSNs would quickly create a message to display in order to inform
students and staff. One major disadvantage of DSNs is that the only people who would get the
message are the people who actually stop and read the screens. The staff has to develop an eye
catching message to ensure that everyone who passes by pays attention to the message. WVU
started with only 10 screens, and have now installed approximately 100 DSNs all around their
large campus to try and reach as many people as possible (Graham, 2013).
Finally, these last two articles address social media and crisis alerts. In Austin, Jin, and
Lius (2013) article it explains how the public responds to a crisis, and why. In this study, the
authors compare different types of media, and interview several college students. The sample
consisted of 162 college students who were asked which media they preferred during a crisis
situation. The different media forms consisted of face to face, social media, and traditional
media. The results suggest that many students prefer traditional media over face to face, and
social media. These results were surprising because the current generation uses a lot of social
media, especially to communicate. However, this study explains the social-mediated model

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which help one understand why the public communicate the way they do. Even though
traditional media was the most popular response, they still explain how social media is important
during a crisis situation.
With Twitter and Facebook being extremely popular among college students, its not
surprising that many colleges and universities are considering these sites as a means of campus
crisis communication, or have already started using it. In 2010 at least 72% of college students
were said to have social media profiles, and at least 45% admitted to checking their profiles at
least once a day (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, &Zickuhr, 2010). The University of Minnesota
administrators started a Facebook and had over 3,000 members by October of 2007. They used
the group to send members messages in the event of an emergency. In 2007 a gunman
approached the University of Wisconsin-Madison while their text messaging alert system was
not yet ready for use. At that point they decided to post information on Facebook to alert students
about the crisis taking place, it was later reported that the posts had reached 40,000 views
(Violino, 2008). Besides using Facebook and Twitter to alert students and staff, people have been
turning to the sites to respond and cope with these crises. After the Virginia Tech shootings, over
3,000 students joined a group on Facebook called Im OK at VT, where students and staff
could make sure their friends were okay, find their friends, and report people missing. On the
actual day of the shootings more than 10,000 students used Facebook or Myspace to
communicate (Violino, 2008).

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Method
The methodology we selected to do our research was survey. We used this method because after
looking at all of our options we realized that it was the best way to get the opinions and thoughts
of numerous Slippery Rock University students in a short amount of time. A 10 question survey
was sent out to many Slippery Rock University. We used an online survey generator, asking them
questions about topics such as social media, campus crisis alerts, and text messaging (see
Appendix A for survey questions). Also, we recruited seven people to participate in a focus
group. Participants started off by doing an ice breaker, this way they were more comfortable
expressing their opinions around one another, and we could get information. Then, they were all
asked a series of open ended questions that helped us gain an in-depth understanding of how they
felt about the current text message crisis alerts, and the possibility of social media crisis alerts
(see Appendix B for focus group questions). Our target population included any Slippery Rock
University students that were willing to fill out a survey, or to participate in the focus group.
Participants could be of any class standing, age, gender, etc. Participants for the online survey
were chosen at random, we sent out an email with the link to multiple students which enabled
virtually any students to take the survey. For the focus group we asked friends, classmates, and
random students to participate so that we could get as many possible participants just in case
some people had to back out, or didnt show up. To make sure that all rights were protected we
provided a consent form for all participants to fill out (see Appendix C for consent form). The
consent forms informed the individuals on the purpose of the study, what we were asking them to
do, confidentiality, risks and benefits, our contact information, and how participation was
completely voluntary. Also, each participant was asked to create a fake name for us to refer to
them as so that their actual identity was not ever referred to in the study.

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Results
After sending out a link to the online survey to around 100 people, we ended up getting 40
responses. It seemed as though there was a definite pattern in the way most questions were
answered. When asked, 31 respondents chose text messages as the most efficient way to send out
campus crisis alerts (see Appendix D chart 1 for results). This is very surprising since 38
respondents claimed to have a Facebook and/or Twitter account (see Appendix D chart 2for
results). The 38 respondents also seem to be very active on these social media sites as 29
responded saying that they check their personal accounts at least 10 times a day, and 9 saying
about 5-6 times (see Appendix D chart 3for results). Respondents were also asked if they would
friend or follow social media accounts created by the university to inform students and staff
of crises on campus. Although social media was not chosen as the most efficient way to get the
alerts sent out, 38 respondents answered yes, that they would indeed friend or follow the
accounts (see Appendix D chart 4for results). The main point of our study was to see if it would
be beneficial for Slippery Rock University to create social media profiles on Facebook and
Twitter that would post immediate campus crisis alerts, which 37 respondents chose yes as their
answer. With these results its safe to assume that it would be beneficial to students and staff.
There was an optional comment section attached to the question asking if students thought the
social media profiles would be useful, which provided us with very insightful statements
supporting the social media crisis alerts. The point was made that phones dont always work
correctly, are not always charged, and some students and staff do not even have cell phones to
receive text messages. This would keep them from getting the campus crisis alerts. Social media
on the other hand can be accessed on a computer and most cell phones, which gives one more
accessibility options. For all the comments we received about the constant checking of phones

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for text messages, we received just as many comments about always checking social media.
After doing research and analyzing the results from the surveys and focus group we found that
there are numerous problems that can occur with the text message campus crisis alert system.
While the text alerts are only sent to the people that opt in for them, there is a chance they might
receive them when its too late, or might not receive the alert at all. In contrast, posting the alert
to a social media profile would give all friends and followers the ability to see it. This would
make for the university to only have to worry about a small percent people not seeing it.
Typically on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, when an unusual event occurs
numerous people tweet or post a status about it. For example, if the university were to post a
campus crisis alert on social media, the people who are friends or followers of the profiles
have the ability to see them. If/when they see them, it is likely that they would tweet or post a
status about the alert, allowing even more people to catch word of the alert (see Appendix D
chart 5 for results& Appendix A for survey questions).
On the other hand, our focus group supplied us with more in-depth opinions of seven
participants. Just like results from the online survey, participants all had a Facebook or Twitter
profile, some even had both. About half of the participants said that they constantly find
themselves on at least one of the social media sites throughout different times of the day. All
participants chose text messaging as the most effective way to alert students and staff if a crisis
were to happen on or around Slippery Rock Universitys campus. This answer is an obvious
reoccurring theme throughout our study. Since our world is extremely social media orientated in
more aspects than one, we received plenty of valid points concerning why social media would
also be a good tool for sending crisis alerts. To start, all participants agreed that using multiple
ways to send out crisis alerts would be the most beneficial. This is because the more ways that

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the alerts are sent out, the more likely it is that a greater percentage of students and staff will
come across the alert is some way or form. It was stated that a lot of times while participants are
on their social media profiles, they ignore notifications about texts and emails. The point was
made that Slippery Rock University is constantly sending out emails, which impacts the email
alerts in a negative way. Because the university floods students inboxes with daily emails,
students tend to delete them without even reading the subject line. Overall, it was found that as
long as social media campus crises alerts were advertised and made as accessible as the text
message alerts, the two systems combined would in fact be beneficial to Slippery Rock
University students and staff (see Appendix B for focus group questions).

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Discussion
Significance of Results
Evidence from our research examined the effectiveness of social media and campus crisis
alerts. The findings are supported by discussion from several scholarly articles, and are focus
group, which was comprised of seven individuals. Since our society is becoming increasingly
social media oriented, colleges and universities should devise a campaign to make students more
aware of campus crisis alerts via social media. Even though many students agreed that text
messages were the best form of communication during a crisis, they explained how important it
is to convey crisis alerts through social media such as Face book, or a university website. Most
importantly our results showed that the more ways that are used to communicate campus crisis
alerts to students and staff, the better.
Limitations and Flaws of Study
Limitations can result from many factors. For instance, our focus group was limited
because our population consisted of all females. This would also be considered a flaw of our
study because the group was not considered diverse. Since our focus group was comprised of
seven females, it was hard to determine what a male would say given the same questions. Also,
we created a survey online and it was sent out to around 100 people. Only 40 responses were
given, and there is no way of us knowing if each response was honest. With having so many
students at Slippery Rock University, only getting 40 responses doesnt even begin to account for
a fraction of the student population. Many respondents of the online survey also skipped over the
please explain part of a few of the questions, resulting in us only getting detailed reasoning of
a few respondents answers. We also should have asked participants more questions about their
opinion on the university using social media to not only send out the alerts, but to send updates

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and more detailed information as well. We received results saying that if the university sent the
alerts out via social media, they could end up with a bad image if crime rate were high because
the public would be able to view the alerts. After getting this response we realized that we
shouldve clarified whether the possible social media profiles used for posting the alerts would
have been accessible to the public, or limited to only students and staff. Lastly, when putting
together our final paper and started to read over our literature reviews we realized that we forgot
to include DSNs (digital signage network) in the survey process. DSNs could be used as another
way to supply students and staff with campus crisis alerts. If we wouldve included this in our
research we couldve been supplied with helpful information. This information in return could
have been useful for the Slippery Rock University Public Relations office, or the university in
general.
Conclusions
In order to gain a complete understanding of social media and campus crisis alerts, it is
crucial to conduct a study that defines all true aspects of social media. This should include chat
rooms, emails, or even online focus groups. Many may disagree on the most effective way to
communicate campus crisis alerts, and this is demonstrated by the online survey. As our society
is becoming increasingly social media oriented, it is important to examine all aspects of social
media, and how different types can get crisis alerts out to students. Many respondents agreed
that more ways of getting crisis alerts out to students is always ideal.
Recommendations for Future Research
There are a few things that could be done in the future to improve and build on the research
that we have already done. To really see how well using social media sites would work when
putting out additional alerts about campus crises, Slippery Rock University could implement the

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system and do a test run. After doing this, they could send out a campus wide survey to see how
students and staff felt about the system. This would give them results that they could analyze,
showing whether or not the system actually improved the way campus crisis alerts are
communicated to students. If students wanted to further the study we would recommend reaching
out to a larger amount of students, asking them to take a survey for their opinions. With us only
having 40 respondents, we feel as if the results might not be that accurate because its not even
1% of the student population. Also, it would be beneficial to send a survey out to staff to see how
they would feel about implementing social media crisis alerts. With the majority of students and
staff now having smart phones, it would be beneficial for someone to do a study on creating an
app for smartphones that students and staff could download in order to receive immediate
campus crisis alerts on their phone. Even if the student or staff member doesnt have a
smartphone, if they have an iPod or an iPad they could still download the app to receive the
alerts. A few of our respondents mentioned that when the university sends out a campus crisis
alert that it should also be posted on the SRU.edu home page, this is something that could be
very beneficial and would be a good idea for research.
Sharing the Information with the Office/Organization that Assisted with Your Research
The Slippery Rock University Public Relations Office and the campus police supplied us
with a lot of information to help us improve our research process. Now that we have completed
our research we plan to email both of them with, informing them with the results that we have
gotten. Also, we plan to make sure they dont have any questions or any suggestions about
further actions that we should take following the study. We also want to mail the PR office and
the campus police thank you letters soon to show how appreciative we are for their time and
effort.

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References
Anatol, K. E., &Applbaum, R. L. (1979). Communication in the academic environment: A
school perspective. Association for Communication Administration Bulletin, (29), 29-33.
Austin, L., Jin, Y., & Liu, B. (2013). The tendency to tell: Understanding publics communicative
responses to crisis information form and source. Journal of Public Relations Research,
25(1), 51-67.
Caruso, J. B., and Nelson, M., Salaway, G. (2007). The ECAR study of undergraduate students
and information technology, 6, 1-124.
Grahm II, S.,W. (2013). Delivering the message.American School & University, 85(5), 28.
Leeper, K. A., &Leeper, R. V. (2006). Crisis in the college/university relationship with the
community: A case study. Journal of Promotion Management, 12(3), 129-142.
Lenhart, A., Purcell, L., Smith, A., &Zickuhr, K. (2010).Social media and young adults.Pew
Internet and American Life Project, 1-51.
Madere, C. M. (2007).Using the university website to communicate crisis information. Public
Relations Quarterly, 52(2), 17-19.
Mastrodicasa, J. (2008). Technology use in campus crisis. New Directions for Student Services,
(124), 37-53.
Tindell, D. R., &Bohlander, R. W. (2012). The use and abuse of cell phones and text messaging
in the classroom: A survey of college students. College Teaching, 60(1), 1-9.
Violino, B. (2008). Alert!: In emergencies, schools use technology to get the message out
quickly. Community College Journal, 78(5), 16-18.

Appendix A

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Survey Questions
1. If a crisis were to happen on or around Slippery Rock University's campus, what form of
communication do you think would get information to students and staff the quickest?
a. Email
b. Twitter/ Facebook
c. Text message
d. Other
2. Do you know how to sign up for SRU's crisis text message alerts?
a. Yes
b. No
3. Have you signed up for SRUs crisis text message alerts?
a. Yes
b. No
4. Are the instructions on how to sign up for the text message alerts clear and easy to
follow?
a. Yes
b. No
c. I have not signed up for the text alerts
5. If you have not signed up for the alerts, which of the following is the reason? (If you have
signed up for the alerts please choose answer A.)
a. I have signed up for the alerts
b. I didnt know about the alerts
c. I dont know where to/ how to sign up for the alerts
d. I dont feel that its necessary to sign up for the alerts
e. Other (please specify)
i. If it has message/ data rates may apply
ii. Just didnt do it yet
6. Do you feel that Slippery Rock University should do more to inform students about why/
how to sign up for the text message alerts?
a. Yes
b. No
7. Do you have any social media account(s)? (Facebook, Twitter)
a. Yes
b. No

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8. How many times a day, on average, do you check your social media account(s)? If you
don't have any social media accounts please choose answer E.
a. 1-2
b. 3-4
c. 5-6
d. 10+
e. I do not have a Facebook and/ or Twitter
9. In addition to the text message alerts, if SRU created social media profiles dedicated to
posting crisis alerts would you follow/ friend the profiles so that you could receive the
alerts?
a. Yes
b. No
10. Do you think that it would be beneficial to you and the rest of SRU's students/ staff if
SRU created social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter dedicated to posting
immediate crisis alerts?
a. Yes
b. No
Additional comments for question 10
In doing this, some people may do something only to be recognized on social media.
Although information should be public so the community can be informed, I do not feel
that putting it on social media would help deter the acts.
Yes because sometimes people's phones don't work correctly or they might not read them
right away. Many people are always on social networks so that's why I feel like it would
be beneficial.
Yes but I don't think students will always see the information. I think the texts are great
but a lot of people don't know about them.
It would give them another way to communicate situations to people who may not sign
up for the alerts or are unable to receive them.
People check social media multiple times per day. It would help but I think text messages
are still the best way to inform the students.
I feel as though the immediate crisis alert should be on the slippery rock website. If it is
on social networks, it could promote a bad image for the school if crime rates are high.
I'd be much more likely to know about a crisis if I went on twitter or Facebook, and saw a
post on my timeline.
Where text messages can only be seen on a phone, Facebook and twitter updates can be
seen on most phones and also computers. If a persons phone were dead or broken, or if
they didn't have a phone, they could still get the notification on a computer. Also
sometimes texts don't send or get received, on a social network website, once a post is up
it is up for everyone to see.
Appendix B
Focus Group Questions

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1.) What do you consider a campus crisis?

2.) Regarding campus crisis, what steps have you taken to make sure that you would be
informed if one were to happen?
3.) Describe what your reaction would be to a crisis on or around SRUs campus.
4.) As a student do you feel that you are aware of how to handle a crisis on or around SRUs
campus? Please explain.
5.) In a 24 hour span, how much do you use social media and in what ways do you use it?
6.) In what ways do you feel it would be most effective for SRU to spread the word about
crises on or around the SRU campus?
7.) In what ways do you think SRU should change the way that they handle crises?
8.) Do you believe that SRU does their part in educating students about crises that could/do
happen on and around the campus? Please Explain.
9.) Do you feel faculty know what to do if a crisis were to happen? Please explain.
10.) Do you think that it would be effective for SRU to create social media profiles that would
provide students and staff with the latest crisis alerts? Please explain.
11.) If they were to create the social media profiles, would you use them? Please explain.

Appendix C
Consent Form
CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH
The Relationship Between Social Media and How Campus Crises Alerts are Communicated to
Students
Lyssa Cunningham, (412)913-0757, lnc1001@sru.edu

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Natalie Niccolai, (412)980-0318, nrn1001@sru.edu

Purpose of the study
The purpose of our study is to see if there is a relationship between social media, particularly
Facebook and Twitter, and the way campus crisis alerts are communicated to students. We are
trying to see if the current way crisis alerts are communicated would be improved if the alerts
were also placed on social media. Your participation in our study is 100% voluntary. However, if
you choose to participate in the study you may withdraw at any time and it will not be held
against you. Participation will not affect any grades, standing, etc with the university. Also, your
participation may be terminated without your consent if we were to decide that it is unsafe for
you to continue participating in the research.
Procedures
If you choose to participate you will be asked to take part in a focus group. Series of questions
will be asked about your feelings on social media, the current way campus crisis alerts are
communicated, etc. The duration of the focus group should only take less than an hour of your
time, maybe a little more.
Confidentiality
Your confidentiality will be 100% protected to the extent allowed by law. Any papers,
audio/video tapes, etc. will only be listened/ viewed by the researchers. No participants name
will be included on anything, fake names will be created. After the research all materials will be
disposed of.
Risks/Benefits
There are no risks with participating in our study. You could potentially benefit, in the future,
from participating if the university were to change the way the alerts are communicated. This
could make SRUs campus a safer place.
Sources of Information
You will be given a copy of this consent form. Please ask any questions or voice any concerns
you may have now or at any time by contacting the researchers listed above. If you have
questions about your rights as a participant in this study or the way the study has been conducted,
you may contact the IRB office by telephone at (724) 738-4846 or by e-mail at irb@sru.edu

Initials_________
Authorization

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

22

I have read and understand this consent form, and I volunteer to participate in this research study.
I understand that I will receive a copy of this form. I voluntarily choose to participate, but I
understand that my consent does not take away any legal rights in the case of negligence or other
legal fault of anyone who is involved in this study. I further understand that nothing in this
consent form in intended to replace any applicable Federal, state or local laws.
_________________________
Participant Name (Print)

___________________________________
Participant Name (Sign)

__________________
Date

______________________________ ____________________________________
Investigator Name (Print)

_______________________
Date

Investigator Name (Sign)

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Appendix D
Result Charts
Chart 1

If a crisis were to happen on or around Slippery Rock University's campus, what form of communication do you think would get information to students and staf the quickest?

13%
10%
Email Twit er/ Facebook Text Messages Other

78%

Chart 2

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

Do you have any social media account(s)? (Facebook, Twitter)

5%
Yes

No

95%

Chart 3

How many times a day, on average, do you check your social media account(s)? If you don't have any social media accounts please choose answer E.

5%
23%
One - two Three - four Five - six Ten + Dont have social media

73%

24

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

25

Chart 4

In addition to the text message alerts, if SRU created social media profiles dedicated to posting crisis alerts would you fol ow/ friend the profiles so that you could receive the alerts?

5%
Yes

No

95%

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

Chart 5

26

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPUS CRISIS ALERTS

27

Do you think that it would be beneficial to you and the rest of SRU's students/ staff if SRU created social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter dedicated to posting immediate crisis alerts?

8%

Yes

No

93%