UFAlert emergency notification test set for Tuesday

November 15, 2013

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida will conduct a test of its UF Alert emergency notification system Tuesday between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m., which is between fourth and fifth class periods.

This year’s test message will be sent by UF Student Body President Christina Bonarrigo.

Included in Tuesday’s test message will be a link to the UF Alert website http://ufalert.ufl.edu where users can learn more about the latest UF Alert improvements. Those include an updated emergency contact information screen in MyUFL that displays the cellphone number users have chosen to receive UF Alerts. They also include the ability to opt into or out of new location-based emergency notifications for the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and the UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona. All users will receive systemwide alerts.

The text portion of Tuesday’s message will be sent to students, faculty and staff via text messaging, email, UF Alert social media accounts, the UF home page, IP telephones and speakers, and Department of Housing and Residence Education visual displays.

The audio portion of the message will broadcast to essentially all Cisco IP telephones on the UF campus as well as outdoor speakers in high pedestrian traffic areas such as the Plaza of the Americas, the Reitz Student Union North Lawn, Turlington Plaza and the Sun Terrace at the UF Health Science Center. In addition, most UF academic classrooms and class laboratories on campus include an IP telephone or speaker to receive broadcasted UF Alerts. The audio message may repeat for up to two minutes during the test.

To ensure that you will receive text messages, students, faculty and staff should update their emergency contact information and location preferences in MyUFL. Updates can be made at MyUFL by clicking on “My Account” and “Update Emergency Contact.”

The emergency text messaging system is used only in cases when a threat has the potential to affect the university’s campus. In the event of such an emergency or disaster, the UF home page is the official source of university emergency-related information.

To learn about your UF Alert, including subscription settings, notification methods and additional information, go to http://ufalert.ufl.edu.