Student Life

Urgent Message System Goes Live

Students arriving on campus this fall will be signed up to receive messages from a new system designed to notify them about emergencies, dangerous weather, health threats, and other imminent hazards.

Called Alert UR, the notification system conveys information quickly and accurately without compromising the University’s phone lines, critical in an emergency situation.

Activated in April, the system is available to undergraduates and will be extended to include graduate students, faculty, and staff over time.

“All undergraduate students are automatically notified via their e-mail account” of any emergencies affecting the campus area, says Mark Cavanaugh, director of environmental health and safety. Students who prefer to be notified by text messaging, cell phone calls, calls to their room, or other methods can update their contact information at www.rochester.edu/alertur.

“One of the biggest challenges for emergency preparedness and response is communication,” Cavanaugh says.

“This is just one more tool to help us get information out to our University community.”