By Jo Ann Johnston
As the new academic year kicks off at Western, the university is introducing a new communication tool to alert the campus community in the event of an emergency.
Powered by Everbridge, Alert WesternU is an emergency mass notification system that will issue important safety messages by way of email and text messages in the event of a campuswide emergency.
Thanks to a coordinated effort between Campus Community Police, Communications and Public Affairs and Western Technology Services, the university now has centralized access to the entire campus community.
"Western is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy campus. The implementation of Alert WesternU is one more way we are improving emergency communication across campus," said Daniel Redmond, Director, Campus Community Police and Emergency Management.
All Western students, faculty and staff are automatically subscribed to the system with their Western email address and will receive email notifications in the event of an emergency.
Subscribers are being asked to customize their accounts to add up to three mobile numbers in order to receive text messages, and two additional email addresses. Alerts can be customized and individuals can opt to have friends, family or other emergency contacts listed and notified in the event of an emergency on campus.
"We're encouraging everyone to log into their Alert WesternU account to choose how we contact you," Redmond said. "We also want everyone to download the Everbridge app."
The system will be tested three times annually - the first Wednesday in October; the last Wednesday in January; and the Wednesday during Emergency Preparedness Week in May.
Following the launch and testing of Alert WesternU, Western will retire the weather sirens in October.
