Guardian expands its coverage off campus

UNC Mobile, the cell phone service plan that the University began offering this semester, has expanded the Guardian service’s coverage to Granville Towers and fraternity and sorority houses near campus.

Guardian – the only UNC Mobile service that requires a Sprint Nextel network plan – is a campus safety application that uses a Global Positioning System. Officials expanded the service to better accommodate students who don’t live in residence halls, as the service already was available to those students.

Guardian places the Department of Public Safety at users’ fingertips by allowing them to set a timer for the period in which they consider themselves to be in an unsafe situation, such as walking home alone at night.

“Five minutes before the alert goes off, it will send you a message asking you if you want to turn it off,” said Brian Payst, director of technology and systems support for the Division of Student Affairs at UNC.

To deactivate the timer, the user must type in a four-digit personal pin code, otherwise DPS will be notified of the individual’s exact location with the help of the GPS system.

A campus police officer then responds, using the sent location to find the user. Officers call the user’s phone and send someone to that position to verify the user’s safety.

DPS uses information from the personal profile that each user completes when signing up for the service, detailing appearance.

Because DPS has a limited extent of jurisdiction, the service only extends to campus areas, but Rave Wireless, the company providing the services under the UNC Mobile name, is in talks to expand Guardian coverage to more students living off campus.

As of Oct. 10, Payst said 156 people have the phone program that has Guardian capabilities.

Rave Wireless also offers text messaging alerts and a variety of features for free to any mobile phone user regardless of wireless provider.

“It’s not about making money,” Payst said. “It’s about finding a way to underwrite the cost so students can have the service.”

Students can use all features except Guardian in any location, whether on or off campus.

Rave offers emergency text message alerts from UNC, updates from Blackboard and group messaging.

Students can register for these services and choose which applications to add. Most applications use an Internet connection or text message, which is then charged to the user’s current plan. That is not contracted through Sprint.

Several students said they did not have phones that were enabled to use most of these applications.

“If I had free Internet with my phone, I would use it,” junior Jessie Schmitz said.

But other students said the services would be helpful. “I’m sure that once I signed up for it, I would find it really useful, kind of like Facebook,” freshman Mallorie Monteith said.

Contact the Univeristy Editor at udesk@unc.edu.