Upcoming test of the emergency notification system
October 14, 2024
Dear members of the Â鶹´«Ã½ community,
We have no higher priority than your safety and security. To ensure Â鶹´«Ã½ can quickly and effectively warn students, faculty, staff and visitors about an immediate or imminent threat on campus, the University will test its campus-wide emergency notification system (Rave) this week. Emergency messages are sent from AlertNU.
An AlertNU test message will be sent to you at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, via text, email and phone. It will also be posted on Â鶹´«Ã½’s X (formerly Twitter) account @Â鶹´«Ã½U.
It is vitally important that the University can reach you during an emergency or other serious threat. Please take a moment to verify your emergency messaging contact information in or and make relevant updates as needed. Emergency communications sent by text message are often issued the fastest. The following guides can assist you with verifying or updating your mobile number for emergency notifications via text.
- to add/update emergency text alerts in CAESAR
- to add/update emergency text alerts in myHR
You may also to log in to the emergency notification system (Rave) to validate your emergency messaging contact information uploaded from myHR or CAESAR.
Immediate or imminent threats
In the event of an immediate threat, an urgent message titled “AlertNU” will notify members of the Â鶹´«Ã½ community via text, email and, potentially, phone. If the emergency requires immediate action, such as an active aggressor, information will also be posted on the University’s homepage and social media channels.
AlertNU messages will be denoted with the color red, where possible. Some communications, including text messages, are limited to plain text and will not include the color red.
Emergency email messages will appear with the following header:
To learn more about the procedures to keep you and others safe in emergency situations, Â鶹´«Ã½ has developed this . In addition, to demonstrate how to respond in the event of a violent, life-threatening emergency on campus, Â鶹´«Ã½ has produced a .
Serious or continuing threats
For other critical incidents and potential safety threats, such as robberies, sexual assaults, aggravated assaults or vehicle thefts, you will receive email messages titled “Crime Notice,” denoted with the following purple header:
Please pay attention when you see these two types of alerts and follow the steps below to ensure we are all working together to secure our campus environment.
Keep your contact information current
Students, faculty and staff have their email addresses automatically entered into the emergency messaging system.
For students, if your contact details in CAESAR contain a mobile phone number with a “Phone Type” of “Cellular,” which is also checked as “Use for Emergency Notification,” you will receive emergency messaging via text. For faculty and staff, if your contact details in myHR contain a mobile phone number with a phone “Type” of “Mobile,” you will receive emergency messaging via text.
To review or update your contact details in CAESAR or myHR and to validate your emergency messaging contact information in Rave, please use these resources:
- Students:
- Faculty and staff:
- via Rave
Encourage others to opt in
We recommend that all parents, contractors, visitors, vendors, members of the Evanston community, hospital partners in Chicago and others opt into the University emergency notification system. All can enroll in AlertNU by texting “AlertNU” to 226787.
For more information, please visit the , which includes answers to frequently asked questions and our used in emergencies.
The security of the Â鶹´«Ã½ community is a shared responsibility. We thank you for your partnership and vigilance in helping to keep Â鶹´«Ã½ safe.
Sincerely,
Bruce A. Lewis
Chief of Police and Senior Associate Vice President