Elysabeth Derby woke up on a recent snowy day, flipped on the television and discovered that UNM was on two-hour delay.
But she was troubled when she realized she never received a message from TextMe UNM, an emergency notification service she had signed up for.
Derby said she called friends to see if they had received anything, but they hadn't.
"We never got anything, and I was signed up for it," she said. "They might say that they have it, but I haven't received any kind of emergency notification, and I don't think it is very effective."
UNM began offering the service after last year's shooting at Virginia Tech to inform students, faculty and staff about crises on campus.
TextMe.unm.edu states that the service also provides weather alerts.
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However, the University never informed students about the two-hour delay in late January.
University spokesman Steve Carr said the University hadn't planned on using the system for notifications on weather, despite the information posted on the Web site, but it will do so in the future.
Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for UNM Police, said the campus community should sign up for the service at TextMe.unm.edu.
"It's a way to make sure that everybody has access to the same info at the same time, and that's really important when we're trying to keep people safe," Davis said. "We have limits to who is regularly checking their e-mail or has access to a landline, but there's hardly anybody who doesn't have a cell phone."
More than 7,000 people on campus have signed up for the system, Carr said.
He said the system has been used only once, after a chemical spill last fall at the Health Science Center.
No one was injured in the chemical spill.
Although there haven't been many emergencies on campus since the system was set up last year, people should still sign up, Carr said.
"It's really a hugely important tool for the students, faculty and staff," he said. "It could be life and death."
Davis said the president's office decides when a text message should be sent.
Student Nicole Mentz said she feels safe on campus but signed up for the service after the shootings at Virginia Tech in April.
"There is really nothing you can do to prevent something like that from happening, but it's always good to have something just in case," she said. "I always have my phone on me. My teachers talked about it and said we can leave our phones on in class on vibrate."
Student Jennifer Mahkee said she signed up for the service this semester to get text messages about snow delays.
But she said she's not convinced the system works.
"It just seems like a good idea, and it's convenient," she said. "But I know people who signed up earlier, and they got no response for delays in school."
Derby said she is happy to be signed up for the service, but only if it works.
"If you don't offer the service, that is better than saying that you are going to," she said. "I'm pretty upset about the fact that there is no way for us to know if stuff is happening. I'd like to think that if there was a shooting, I'd get some kind of warning."
