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By Mark Owczarski

BLACKSBURG, Va., October 21, 2008 -- All full- and part-time Virginia Tech students, regardless of level or campus, who are seeking to enroll in courses in any future term will now be required to notify the university whether or not they choose to subscribe to VT Alerts, the university's emergency notification method used to reach mobile communications devices.

Virginia Tech students register for classes on-line. Before selecting courses for a future term, students will be prompted to respond to a series of requests: to provide and confirm emergency contact information and to decide whether or not to subscribe to VT Alerts. Students must respond to those requests before proceeding to the course selection process.

In addition, students will be given the option to amend their student record to grant permission to third parties (such as parents) to discuss the student's educational record with certain university administrators.

Finally, students will be notified of any university holds (an unpaid library fine or parking ticket, for example) that may prevent them for registering for classes.

Students to have the ability to update this information as well as all other parts of their student record by accessing Hokie SPA at any time.

Registration for the Spring 2009 term begins today and continues through Tuesday, Oct. 28. Registration for summer courses begins Friday, Feb. 13, 2009; registration for Fall 2009 courses begins Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

VT Alerts is one of several methods used by the university to contact community members with urgent information. It allows the university to send SMS (text) messages to mobile devises; send recorded messages to home, office, or mobile phone numbers; and send e-mails to non-Virginia Tech addresses. Additional methods include the outdoor siren system; broadcast e-mail to all vt.edu e-mail addresses, the emergency notification version of the university homepage; and electronic message boards in all general assignment classrooms.

Contact Mark Owczarski at maowczar@vt.edu or (540) 231-5223.

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