Students across the country are gearing up to go back to college. In fact, freshman move-in at UW-Eau Claire this Thursday.

And after tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, students and parents have safety on their minds.

"The first few months you're just so worried about so many other things that you weren't necessarily thinking about a catastrophic event, but then once you get used to living in the residence halls, this becomes your actual home, i think you start worrying about your safety."

Resident Assistant Kelly Krapf says recent concerns about violence on other campuses have the staff at UW-Eau Claire pushing new students to register for the text message alert system.

"I had signed up through the first email last year in the spring, and the first round kind of went out and i didn't get it for about ten minutes," Krapf says.

Mike Rindo says that test alert back in May showed some kinks in the system, but they're working to straighten them out. They also have an email alerts and pop-up notifications on all university system computers.

The next step? Getting a PA system attached to fire alarms in all campus buildings.

"It's a complex task, because we have a lot of different fire alarm systems that we have to be able to work to coordinate in a lot of different buildings," Rindo explains.

All of the dorms have had PA alarms for more than a decade.

And even though housing director Chuck Major says the school has never really needed to use them, he's noticed everyone's on alert, even with false alarms.

"Someone up in Sutherland on the third floor was looking out the window and saw this guy with what looked like a gun,” he describes about a scene last spring. “It was a squirt gun,” Major laughs. “That thing probably wouldn't have happened five years ago."

A housing survey says 96 percent of students felt safe living on campus last spring.

Most UW campuses have similar alert systems.

UW Stout safety coordinator Jim Yulir says that school has an email alert system in place, and is working on having pop-ups on all university-issued laptops.

Right now the school doesn't have a text messaging alert system, but administrators haven't ruled it out.