The Code-Blue phones that students see on campus will no longer be nondescript blue-light posts. Starting this month, they will also be emergency loudspeakers.

Emergency loudspeakers are one of the two latest measures the UW has developed as part of its crisis communication plan (the other being the UW Alert system, which sends students text messages in the case of on-campus emergencies).

“We discovered we didn’t have a communication system that could reach people broadly and rapidly,” said Norm Arkans, the UW director of media relations and communications.

An outdoor communication system with the capability to notify students and faculty instantaneously is necessary with 40,218 students and 200 buildings on campus, he said.

“The Web gives you some capabilities,” he said. “We can do e-mail to smaller groups, but it’s slow when you need to reach the entire campus. Someone has to be behind the computer to get the message.”

The loudspeakers will be utilized by the Crisis Communications Team to announce directions to the campus in emergencies like natural disasters or shootings. For example, if an earthquake occurred, directions would be announced to inform students and faculty where to go and what to do.

The Crisis Communications Team call-out list includes Media Relations and Communications, the University Police, Computing and Communications and Human Resources, all of which are trained to work quickly to get messages out to the campus, Arkans said.

“We tell them ‘Here are the facts, and here’s what we need to do’ and then we formulate the message to announce,” he said.

Several students believe the loudspeakers would be effective tools to increase campus safety.

“It would be a great addition,” junior Allison Parker said. “I think in an emergency situation, there’s a lot of chaos and people don’t always know what to do. Sometimes people end up following the crowd, which isn’t always the best.”

The emergency loudspeakers will be retrofitted to nine existing Code-Blue phones in major public gathering areas on campus, including Denny Field, the Quad, Red Square, the Fisheries Lawn and the E-1 Parking Lot. Three new loudspeakers will be installed at the South Campus Center, Campus Green and Rainer Vista.

“These things are pretty powerful,” Arkans said. “We’ll be running practice on them soon, so everyone will get to hear it.”

Junior Kristin Quackenbush, an RA in the Stevens Court L Building, said it’s hard to listen to one person giving directions during an emergency.

“The loudspeakers would kind of be like an overarching authority, so it makes sense to have one to keep things uniform,” she said.

The loudspeakers are also a good idea if people have not taken the time to subscribe to UW Alert, she said.

Arkans said the loudspeakers would only be used in emergency situations.

“They will be reserved for situations where a fraction of our community is at risk,” he said.

[Reach reporter Kim Lee at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]