Text alert sign-up falls short of expectations

Participation in the University of Maryland’s emergency text alert service is only half of what the official in charge of it had hoped for, despite a sign-up blitz last week.

As of Wednesday, only 13,069 people had registered, or 52 percent of the 25,000 Major Jay Gruber, who runs the system at College Park, had expected after promoting the system during emergency awareness week.