UM-Flint Emergency Alert System Press Release
Students, faculty and staff at the University of Michigan-Flint now can register to receive voice and text messages during major emergencies on campus with the addition of a new emergency notification alert system.
With the UM-Flint Emergency Alert system, messages may be sent via email as well as voice or text messages to devices including cell phones and smartphones. All three of the University of Michigan campuses are simultaneously implementing the system for students, faculty and staff. Emergency messages will be sent to individual campuses based on the nature and location of the incident.
Beginning today, individuals can register two telephone or cell phone numbers and a device to receive text messages for increased notification. All active UM-Flint student, faculty and staff e-mail addresses will continue to receive emergency announcements as they have for the past several years.
“We take our efforts to notify the campus community of emergency situations very seriously,” said Interim Chancellor Jack Kay. “This new emergency notification system will be another valuable tool in helping our students, faculty and staff to make life-saving decisions during a crisis on campus.”
The new notification system will generally only be used when it is believed that a life threatening event is about to happen, is currently happening, or has a high potential to happen in the near future. Examples of when the system may be activated include an active shooter and/or hostage situation, a tornado is predicted to strike, or a major hazardous material/chemical spill has occurred, on or near campus. Messages sent via the new notification system will provide directions to recipients as to what recommended action they should take.
“We want our students, faculty and staff to register mobile phone numbers for the alert system as soon as possible,” said Interim Chancellor Kay. “Text or voice messages can be received wherever they may be during an emergency and lessen dependence on receiving e-mail notices in urgent situations.”
Since significant size restrictions apply to text messages, additional information during critical incidents will be posted on the UM-Flint Web site (www.umflint.edu). The University will also add information to the official UM-Flint MySpace at www.myspace.com/um_flint and Facebook at www.facebook.com/um-flint. Staff will also make announcements using the campus public address system. The Ann Arbor and Dearborn websites will have information about incidents on those campuses.
“The new system is an important addition to campus safety efforts. It will only be used to notify the campus of clear threats to public safety and for significant emergency situations,” said Chalmers Sanders, director of the Department of Public Safety. “With the UM-Flint emergency Alert system we now have the ability to communicate quickly with a large number of people.”
The system is scheduled to be tested at the end of March. While the University will not pass along any fees to use the service, message recipients may be charged for calls or messages by their service provider, depending on their individual phone plans.
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