All of the campus security vehicles have new loudspeakers to broadcast warnings. A new text messaging system also sent out sent a test alert to cell phones.

"We're gonna run a test through our computer system of how many students have actually received the messages and when they did, but from all appearances it seemed to have gone fairly well," said communications director Gregg Takayama.

This time it was only a test but tragedies like the Virginia Tech shooting serve as grim reminders of potential threats. Wednesday marks one year since 32 students and faculty were killed by a single shooter.

"It's been a real concern cause it can happen just about anywhere now really if you think about it," said UH student Ryan Yamamoto.

"We do know that one of the lessons of Virginia Tech is to get communications to students and staff as quickly as possible through as many avenues as possible," Takayama said.

There are about 50,000 students across the university system statewide but only a little more than 2,000 of them have gone online to sign up for the service.

"School has really been acting up that's why so I'm trying to keep up. (I'll) probably do it today, though, since I heard it now," Yamamoto said.

The university got the new student text messaging system for free from a high-tech company.

"I think it's a good idea because a lot of times you don't find out until after the fact and it's always on the emails and it's kind of scary knowing that way. So I think this way it's a better, faster way to communicate the problem," said UH student Venecia Cruz.

Test alerts were also sent out by email and pre-recorded phone messages.

Click here to sign up for the emergency alerts.

---