Bryant's VoIP deployment to the entire campus in 2004 allows the university to communicate with students more easily, thanks to a Cisco IP telephone in each room, notes [Richard Siedzik, director of Computer and Telecommunications Services]. The phones have a push-to-talk button that interoperates with the public safety radios carried by campus police and residence directors, so students can reach help quickly and can talk from anywhere in the room...

...An important aspect of the system for Bryant was the health and safety issue that it could address. Like other schools, Bryant was well aware of the communication challenges that happened at Virginia Tech and wanted to implement a system that could provide emergency broadcast services quickly.

Because VoIP can be controlled from within the university and directed by IT, messages can be broadcast or sent as text to the entire campus, to one building, or even to just one room.