UFAlert emergency notification test set for Wednesday

July 18, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida will conduct a test of its UFAlert emergency notification system between 12:15 and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Messages will be sent to students, faculty and staff via text messaging, mass email and a posting on the UF home page. Notes also will be posted to the UF Facebook page and Twitter accounts telling users to go to the home page for a message.

Most areas on campus with Cisco VoIP telephones should receive Wednesday’s audible message through the telephone’s speaker and as a text message on the phone’s screen. The audible message also will be broadcast on selected outdoor locations, including the Plaza of the Americas, the North Lawn at the Reitz Student Union, Turlington Plaza and Broward recreation area.

Wednesday’s test also will mark the first use of a new message-sending system. The university worked with vendor partner Singlewire to make it possible for the university to send and post notifications using only one interface. The goal is to make the emergency notification process as quick and efficient as possible. The integrated notifications sent under UFAlert include email, text messages, audible phone and loudspeaker messages, and postings on websites and social media. UFAlert also can be found on Twitter (twitter.com/ufalert) and Facebook (facebook.com/ufalert).

To ensure that they will receive emergency text messages, students, faculty and staff should update their emergency contact information in MyUFL. Updates can be made at MyUFL by clicking on My Account and Update Emergency Contact. Everyone is encouraged to add the five-digit numbers “23177” or “63079” to his or her cell phone contact list and name it “UFAlert.” This will assist in identifying future, authorized UF text messages on mobile devices.

Anyone who doesn’t receive a text message but has previously entered his or her information in MyUFL should text “SUBSCRIBE UFAlert” to 23177 or 63079. Registered UF subscribers will receive a text message indicating their cell number is in the system.

The emergency text messaging system is used only in cases where a threat is confirmed and has the potential to affect the entire campus. In the event of an emergency or disaster affecting campus, the UF home page is the official source of UF emergency-related information.