Texting Terrorism

I've been catching up on news this morning and came across an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed. It goes into depth about the college's response to the attacks and at one point brings up what I fond to be a compelling idea I feel should be more widespread: text messaging. The quote:

But the one medium that the university could not take advantage of was also the one that most experts cited as being the most useful: text messages. While not a major component of most universities’ crisis strategies at the moment, the messages are beginning to take hold. One university that has been a pioneer in using text messaging is Montclair State University, a mostly commuter campus in New Jersey that requires all incoming students to purchase a cell phone and service that are compatible with the campus’s network. “We’ve made some deliberate decisions about it, and that is that we’ll only use it for emergency reasons,” said Karen Pennington, the vice president of student development and campus life.

The email response of VT is being widely criticized as passive (in addition to too-long delayed). Text messaging seems a very appropriate communication tool at colleges and even in civic settings that is not being utilized. I know of Amber Alerts for lost children, but I can't think of any other crisis situation that that utilizes this medium.