The University of Wisconsin Police Department and Department of Information Technology will test WiscAlerts, the campus emergency notification system, today following recent upgrades to increase the system’s speed.
Thursday from 12-2 p.m., students, faculty and staff signed up for the emergency service will receive test information from WiscAlerts through text messages, e-mail and campus phone lines.
The campuswide test will evaluate new upgrades to the emergency system, which ensure faster delivery of important messages in the event of emergency, Lt. Michael Newton from UWPD said.
“There is an expectation that people have that we will notify the community of events when they will need to take action,” Newton said. “We are more confident in this new system and its speed.”
Improvements to the system have integrated all WiscAlerts — text messages, e-mail and campus phone lines — into a single interface used by UWPD to easily send emergency messages, UW spokesperson John Lucas said.
Previously, the system used multiple services to send the messages, requiring UWPD to log in with different portals.
“It’s prudent to get in touch as fast as possible,” Lucas said. “Now that we have a system to work more efficiently, and with nothing to do but sign-up, [WiscAlerts] is a benefit to campus.”
While WiscAlerts automatically sends e-mails and phone calls, text message alerts require the individual to sign-up, Lucas said. All UW students, faculty and staff with a NetID are eligible for text message alerts.
Currently, about 26 percent of UW’s population has signed up for WiscAlerts text messages, Newton said.
Although WiscAlerts uses multiple services, Newton said the alert system can’t notify everyone of emergency situations. Some may not check their devices to learn the information.
In the future, WiscAlerts will also connect to UW’s main web pages for more exposure, Newton said.
Since WiscAlerts began in May 2008, UWPD used the system once in January 2009 when a gas leak led to the evacuation of several UW buildings near University Avenue and Babcock Drive, Newton said.
