TIFTON — A new emergency messaging system to alert students, faculty, and staff at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will have its test run on Oct. 22.

ABAC Police Chief Bryan Golden said the college will add to its emergency notification procedures the Connect-ED communication service by the NTI Group, Inc., to provide ABAC with the ability to reach all students, faculty and staff with time-sensitive information within minutes.

“Today we are forced to prepare for emergency situations that years ago we never could have anticipated happening,” Golden said. “We can use it for everything from a weather alert to a severe emergency of any nature to keep everyone informed whether they are in their apartments on campus, sitting in front of their computers, or on their way to class.”

Built exclusively for post-secondary institutions using the experience gained in delivering hundreds of millions of messages for K-12 educators, the service enables ABAC to schedule, send and track personalized voice messages to at least two phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, and one text message per person.

“It’s crucial that we are able to notify students immediately in emergency situations because up-to-date communication helps minimize the spread of misinformation, restore order and provide direction,” Golden said.