COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Cell phone text messages. Loudspeakers on towers. Cameras that detect suspicious activity. Colleges and universities are considering these and other measures in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, seeking to improve how they get the word out about emergencies to thousands of students across sprawling campuses.

The University of Washington in Seattle is weighing whether to use warning sirens. Clemson University in South Carolina recently installed a similar system for weather-related emergencies and now may expand its use.

"You're going to see a nationwide re-evaluation of how to respond to incidents like this," said Jeff Newton, police chief at the University of Toledo.

Chuck Green, director of public safety at the University of Iowa, said school officials were discussing a new outdoor warning system just a day before the Blacksburg shootings. The technology would allow for live voice announcements as well as prerecorded messages.

Virginia Tech officials did not send an e-mail warning about a gunman on campus until two hours after the first slayings, drawing criticism that they waited too long and relied on e-mail accounts that students often ignore.

"Would a blast e-mail have been the most effective tool in notifying people of Monday's events?" asked John Holden, a spokesman for DePaul University in Chicago. "Some of the coverage I'm seeing suggests that old-fashioned emergency alarms or broadcast announcements would probably have been more effective."

Many schools consider texting a key way to reach this generation of students. "They consider e-mail snail-mail, and really don't use it as much," said John A. Fry, president of Franklin & Marshall College, near Lancaster, Pa.

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