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NORTON - Amid increasing concerns about security on the nation's campuses, Wheaton College today will conduct the first test of its new electronic emergency alert system.

Students, faculty and staff members will receive a short text message on their mobile phones that reads "You are now confirmed to receive alerts from us," and goes on to explain how to opt out of the alert system or receive additional information about it.

The test itself is low key, but college spokesman Michael Graca said it is an important element in Wheaton's evolving plan for dealing with a potential crisis on campus or nearby.

Wheaton is not alone. In Providence this week, Brown University tested a new outdoor emergency alert system that plays a loud alert tone and recorded messages from the top of three campus buildings.

"Is it sad that we have to think about these things? Yes, it is, but as a society we need to think about them," Graca said. "Anything that can happen in society pretty much can happen on a college campus, and so we need to be aware of that and try to be proactive." Although Wheaton has always had contingency plans in place to deal with an emergency, those efforts have been stepped up in recent years. This was due not only to recent campus tragedies - such as the shooting sprees at Northern Illinois University earlier this month and Virginia Tech last year - but also to concerns about a possible avian flu pandemic.

"We can't necessarily predict what the reason may be, but we need to be ready to recognize when that moment comes, and to act upon it," Graca said. "And this will give us a tool to act upon it."

Along with text messages, the electronic alert system Wheaton has purchased can also send e-mails or voice messages. Faculty, staff and students provided their contact information at the beginning of the semester as part of the school's mandatory sign-in process. Graca said information has been provided by everyone except for one or two of Wheaton's 1,600 students.

Decisions about when to send an alert message will be made by members of the college's critical incident management team, Graca said, adding that it will be used only for emergencies so that students don't "tune it out." The system will be tested at at the start of each semester.

Systems like the one Wheaton has purchased have only become widely available in the past two years, as the federal government has pushed local governments and institutions to ramp up their planning for emergencies, Graca said.

It was the Virginia Tech tragedy that made Wheaton officials decide to invest in a comprehensive alert system right away.

"That sort of confirmed the administration's feeling that we needed to have this kind of capacity," Graca said.

Officials at Virginia Tech were criticized for failing to provide enough information to the campus community after the initial shooting there. Some argued that if more people had been aware of the first incident, they might have been able to stay out of harm's way and avoid the shooter's rampage in a classroom building.

The president of Wheaton's student government, Mike Zwolinski, said it is "reassuring that the school can communicate so efficiently."

Despite the campus tragedies that have made headlines in recent years, Zwolinski said he does not think students are overly concerned, partly because no one expects it to happen on their own campus. "I don't think it's kind of a fear that's hanging over people," he said.

But, Zwolinski added, "Just in case something were to happen, it's reassuring to know that if an emergency were to come down, there is not only a plan in place, but there is something as simple as a text message."

TED NESI can be reached at tnesi@thesunchronicle.com or 508-236-0434.