On Thursday, the new GoldAlert system was used for the first time for something other than inclement weather.
A little after 9:00 a.m., some ETSU students and many faculty and staff members received e-mails and text messages about an “unsubstantiated threat.”
The threat began Wednesday when a text message was inadvertently sent to the Office of Academic Advisement (ARC) at 6:20 p.m., after the offices had already closed. The message was discovered by a student worker at 8:00 a.m. Thursday and included the threat of violence against an unspecified person or persons.
After a quick investigation in which Public Safety called back the number and got the name off the voice mail, they did a search of the student/faculty database and old housing records and found the suspect and his current address.
The suspect was brought in for questioning by Public Safety and the Johnson City Police Department and has been referred to the ETSU Counseling Center. The suspect is a student and has been suspended and further disciplinary and criminal action is being considered.
“When something happens Public Safety should be the first ones notified, then they contact me and I contact the president or the stand-in president,” David Collins, vice president of finance and administration said. “We pull together all of our emergency resources, and then we meet and assess the situation.
“We handle everything as need be by the level of threat,” Collins said.
Because GoldAlert is new there are some issues with the system. Apparently some of the messages are getting delayed because of the overuse of the cell phone towers. Users with AT&T provider seem to be having the most problems because as soon as the messages hit the towers they are refused as spam, Collins said.
The administration is meeting with cell phone companies to try and resolve the problems.
“We are debriefing ourselves and trying to improve for the next time anything happens. We actually have a team that meets weekly to keep on top of things,” Collins said.
For students or faculty that would like to register to receive e-mails or text messages from the GoldAlert Emergency System, you can go to the ETSU Website and click on GoldAlert at the top of the page next to Goldlink. As of Friday, there were 4,184 students and 1,290 faculty/staff signed up for the system.

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