Emergency Notification System
The Emergency Notification System is a series of notifications whose purpose is to alert students, staff and faculty members on the Urbana-Champaign campus in the event of an emergency, such as "imminent threat of death, great bodily harm or some sort of major emergency."
Methods of notification include the distribution of e-mails, SMS (text) messages, loud speakers on police cars and a telephone tree system in campus buildings. The Emergency Web Alert System is composed of the e-mail and SMS messages parts of the system.
The system was inspired after 32 students were murdered at Virginia Technical Institute in April 2007.
Students, staff and faculty who sign up can register multiple e-mails addresses and mobile telephone numbers. Twenty-five percent of students had signed up with the system in February, 2008, since its creation in fall, 2007.
The university planned in July, 2008, to alert people of a crisis through "pop-up adlike notices" on the university's website, Illinois.edu. The university conducted its first test of the system on Tuesday, September 2, 2008, at 10 a.m. The university planned to test the system on the first Tuesday of each month through November, 2008.
Only members of the Critical Incident Committee can send notifications through the system. Members include:
- Champaign Police Department
- Urbana Police Department
- Office of Public Affairs
- Campus Information Technology and Educational Services
Mutare Software of Schaumburg, Ill., wrote the system software. Employees of the company have connections to the university and donated its services.
