MU to Test Emergency Plan and Warning Systems Friday

September 14th, 2015

COLUMBIA, Mo – As part of a commitment to the safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors, University of Missouri officials will conduct a test of its emergency notification systems at 12:50 p.m., Friday, Sept. 18.

“Every semester, we test our plans and warning systems when students are on campus and attending classes,” said Doug Schwandt, chief of the MU Police Department. “The entire system, which includes alert beacons in buildings across campus, computer desktop notifications, text messages and social media postings, will be activated.”

During the test, ALERTUS beacons will flash for 10 seconds. Beacons are located in lecture halls as well as common areas and hallways of most MU campus classroom buildings and student unions. The drill also will test the ALERTUS and Black Board Connect systems technological features, which include:

• Text message alerts to students, faculty and staff who have elected to receive warnings by text.
• A mass alert email to all university email accounts.
• Desktop notification to computer screens that have MU’s alert software installed.
• Messages posted to MU’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• An advisory notice on the MU Alert webpage.

The university has been updating emergency evacuation plans for all buildings on campus.  Each building has evacuation procedures detailed in the building’s emergency action plan kept updated by each building coordinator.

Students, faculty and staff can visit http://mualert.missouri.edu/ for instructions on opting in for emergency text message alerts. This website also contains a summary of MU’s Emergency Management Plan and evacuation procedures.