When the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last August, I tried to make a series of cell-phone calls to my friends residing in the Twin Cities.

I spoke to one person right after I saw the news coverage on TV. After that, I was out of luck. Hours went by and the busy tones continued to beep away, call after call. I was reminded of this situation after reading an article in USA Today regarding college and universities preparing for campus emergencies, like the shootings at Virginia Tech.

The article highlights some of the varying technologies organizations are specifying to notify their students of a campus emergency. Colleges and universities are “installing high-tech alert systems that beam emergency e-mails and voice messages to thousands of cell phones, pagers, and personal computers to alert staff and students both on and off campus,” according to USA Today.

But colleges and universities are not stopping there. They also are specifying low-tech devices, like loudspeakers and sirens, to ensure students get the emergency message quickly and clearly. The University of Vermont already uses e-mail warnings in emergencies, according to USA Today, but the university also will specify a siren-and-loudspeaker system by the summer. The university’s police chief talks about students on athletic fields or other places on campus without immediate e-mail access. That is where the low-tech warnings come into play.

“You’ve got to diversify your communication streams,” the police chief tells USA Today. “You’ve got to have low tech and high tech. There's no ‘one-fits-all.’”

In the case of phone messages, what if calls do not go through? If a college or university sends out 40,000 emergency voice mails, will all the messages reach their intended targets? The clogged phone lines after the bridge collapse make me at least question the technology’s reliability.

Regardless, it is good to see colleges and universities are doing everything they can to keep students on alert, whether it is with new technology or more old-school tactics.