BUTLER TWP— Butler County Community College Monday launched an emergency mass notification system.

The BC3 Alerts system by e2campus instantly and simultaneously alerts students, faculty, and staff of emergency situations.

By signing up at the college's Web site, students will receive important messages on their cell phone or a PDA via text message. Messages also will be sent to personal and college e-mail accounts, posted on the Web site, or received in an RSS feed or Google, MyYahoo, or AOL homepage.

"We take safety and campus security seriously at BC3 by taking a proactive approach to crisis management," Nick Neupauer, BC3 president, said in a statement. "The e2campus system compliments the safety procedures we already have in place."

The system allows each person to register up to two cell phones and two e-mail addresses.

Slippery Rock University also uses an e2campus system to alert students in emergencies.

Many colleges around the country bought similar systems after Virginia Tech student Seung Hui Cho shot 32 students in April at that school before killing himself.