Following is the text of a Feb. 15 e-mail sent by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef to the campus community in the aftermath of last week's student shootings at Northern Illinois University. Closer to home, arrests have been made in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a UC Davis student Jan. 25 and an attempted robbery at the cashier's office Feb. 12:

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

We will soon be testing a new emergency alert system — a fact I had planned to write to you about next week — but last week's horrific shooting at Northern Illinois University compels me to write to you today.

Our hearts are with the NIU family as it struggles to cope with this tragedy. I have sent our condolences and offered assistance in any way that might be helpful.

It's important — and, sadly, now even more timely — for me to update you on how we've strengthened our comprehensive emergency management program this past year, and to ask your help in implementing a new method of urgent communication.

Emergency alert system

The UC Davis Emergency Alert System — designed to provide timely information and instructions during emergencies or other urgent situations — will have its first test on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 27-28. The system can send simultaneous messages to the university community (including the Davis and Sacramento campuses and other off-campus facilities) by e-mail, telephone, fax, pager, cell phone and text messaging.

The new system complements such other means of communication as the campus's Web site (www.ucdavis.edu), the recorded emergency status line (530) 752-2400, emergency radio partner KFBK AM 1530 and other news media, portable bull horns and building sirens, safety officers in facilities and departments, and standard telephone and e-mail messages.

The Feb. 27-28 test messages will be sent to increasingly larger randomly-selected groups of faculty and staff, assessing the ability of UC Davis' networks to handle in a timely way this additional high volume of messages.

A small number of students will also be part of this initial test. A notification will be sent to their UC Davis e-mail addresses. Beginning in late spring, students will be asked to provide additional emergency contact information when they register for classes each quarter. A group of Honors Challenge students will also soon conduct a survey about the most effective way to reach students during an emergency.

Faculty and staff are asked to keep their campus contact information current by periodically reviewing their directory listings at listings.ucdavis.edu/update and modifying their contact information as needed (campus information only for now). By June, when the system is ready for it, they will also be asked to provide personal emergency contact information, such as a home phone and personal cell phone number. This personal information will not be displayed in the university directory, and its privacy will be protected.

A full test of the system is planned for the fall. For more information about this new method of urgent communication and about safety in general, see www.ucdavis.edu/help/emergency_services.html.

UC Davis has an active and comprehensive emergency management program under the guidance of a full-time emergency planner.

We are greatly advantaged by having our own police and fire departments, highly trained to respond to unfolding emergencies. "Blue light" emergency-reporting phones located in several outdoor spots are now identified on our campus map.

All of our police officers have been trained in active shooter/rapid response, and related equipment has been purchased. Our police department has developed a new community training program to help all of us know what to do in the event of such an emergency and has also adapted that training for individual departments. It also offers a free nine-week Citizens Academy to help the campus community learn more about law enforcement at UC Davis.

Our fire department has installed mobile computers in all of its emergency vehicles to provide floor plans for every Davis campus building.

Prevention

Additional registration fee funding this year has enabled Student Affairs to expand its most critical student mental health services, largely related to clinical diagnosis, intervention and treatment. Several counseling psychologists, a psychiatrist, and a data analyst to evaluate student mental health information and trends have been added to the staff. Additionally, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has instituted a seven-days-a-week, after-hours consultation and crisis response service to augment its regular services. And additional training is being provided to faculty and academic departments to help with effective identification, intervention and referral of distressed students.

Two special teams — the Student Crisis Response Team and the Faculty-Staff Crisis Response Team — continue to meet regularly (immediately, if warranted) to prevent high-risk situations of intimidation or violence from escalating to emergencies. CAPS and the Cowell Student Health Center are developing plans to enhance their communication about distressed students, and they are developing a joint behavioral medicine program to increase the likelihood that students with psychological concerns who seek medical treatment will receive needed mental health assistance.

And this past fall, the Campus Violence Prevention Program, a national leader in combating violence against women, was awarded a $1 million federal grant to help UC's 10 campuses improve their prevention and response programs. The three-year project aims to coordinate a model program to reduce the incidence of campus-based violence against women and to provide effective outreach programs and services that make it as comfortable as possible for victims to come forward.

Your help is needed

Ensuring your safety is a top priority — but we need your help. If you encounter a person who appears to be a danger to self or others, tell someone — the police, your supervisor, CAPS, Student Judicial Affairs or the Academic and Staff Assistance Program. Here are the phone numbers: UC Davis police (530) 752-1230 from your Davis cell phone or (916) 734-2555 from your Sacramento cell phone, or 911 from a landline at either the Davis or Sacramento campuses; CAPS (530) 752-0871; Student Judicial Affairs (530) 752-1128; Academic and Staff Assistance Program (530) 752-ASAP or (916) 734-ASAP.

Please help us to make the new UC Davis Emergency Alert System as effective as possible by keeping your contact information current and, if you receive a test message on Feb. 27 or 28, by following the directions you will be given.

Together we can help to safeguard our university community.

Sincerely,

Larry Vanderhoef

Chancellor