As always seems to happen with major tragedies, the community at large lashes out at whoever is “to blame.” Then the guilty party quickly establishes a solution. The sinking of the R.M.S Titanic established nautical safety regulations; the shootings at Columbine High School brought metal detectors to the schoolhouse and the Virginia Tech shootings brought us the Jyngle notification system. The system, designed to send out a mass text message in the event of an emergency, was established in response to the charges that local police didn’t sufficiently notify the public after the initial attack at Virginia Tech.

Missouri Southern has since adopted this system. However, the system is contingent upon students providing the Department of Public Safety with their cell phone numbers. As of yet, only 20 percent of Southern students are participating in the program.

Plenty of students are simply unaware the system is in place while others want to avoid “spam texts.”

We understand that, and we respect that.

Many companies of this type offer text-message notification. They also sell numbers to advertisers. Southern’s system is being provided free of charge.

Now, with the hold-up of Joplin restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings, a situation in our own backyard, we would like to encourage students to volunteer their numbers. Information can be sent to [email protected].

These measures always seem like trivial overkill, until they’re not.