HONOLULU -- College campuses across the nation, including the University of Hawaii system, are looking for ways to keep students informed in case an attack like the one at Northern Illinois University happens.

UH Manoa students on Thursday began registering for an emergency system that would send text messages to people on all 10 UH campuses across the state.

Nearly 3,000 faculty and staff have already entered their phone numbers, e-mail and text message addresses into UH's new alert system, which was successfully tested a week ago. Now, it is time for 50,000 students.

It seems as though students are never far from their cell phones for conversations or text messaging. That is why school officials are using the technology for emergency notification in case a dangerous person is on the loose, or some other safety concern.

UH freshman Quinton Carroll, who was busy checking his text messages in between classes, said it is a good idea.

"There are situations where something could happen and you wouldn't really know, I guess. It would be nice to find out what's going on," Carroll said.

UH is asking students to register their cellular and land-line phone numbers, along with e-mail and text message addresses, for the best chance of getting through when there's an emergency.

"No one strategy can either reach everyone, nor can you guarantee that in the event of an emergency it will be effective," UH Vice President for Information Technology David Lassner said.

The emergency messaging system will cost UH about $100,000 a year, according to school officials. Students told KITV it is a good investment as long as UH does not overuse it.

"It becomes kind of like a fire drill. It's something that people don't really take seriously if they get that text message once a day, for instance. You're just going to kind of disregard it," student John Ramey said.

UH next plans to install emergency sirens all over campus that will take between six months and a year and cost about $200,000.

"It would work much like the tsunami warning system to say, 'Hey, something serious is going on. Get more information,'" Lassner said.

Until the sirens are installed, UH security vehicles have been equipped with public address systems to get the word out quickly in the event of an emergency.