In a major step toward protecting the university community, UC Davis will test a new emergency notification system on Wednesday, Feb. 27, and Thursday, Feb. 28.

The UC Davis Emergency Alert System, which will serve the Davis and Sacramento campuses and other off-campus facilities, can send simultaneous messages to all or some of the community by e-mail, telephone, cell phone, pager, facsimile and text messaging.

"This is all about safeguarding the university community, and this is a significant step forward in our plan," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, who highlighted the alert system in a recent e-mail to the university community about emergency preparedness.

The shooting tragedies at Virginia Tech last April and at Northern Illinois University on Feb. 14 have underscored the need for campuses to share emergency information in a timely way. "This system can help save lives," said Valerie Lucus, campus emergency manager at UC Davis.

A series of graduated tests -- involving a random sample of only some of the university community -- is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. It is designed to test the ability of UC Davis' computer and communications networks to handle the high volume of traffic that the emergency alert system will generate without jeopardizing their performance in the university's daily business.

"We want to make sure we understand how the system will work and how people will respond," Lucus said. "We'd rather do that in a testing mode than wait until there's a real emergency and find out then what it's going to do."

For emergencies only

The emergency alert system will be activated for emergency or urgent situations only. "We don't want to dilute the effectiveness of the system by using it for everyday messages," Lucus said. "When people get a message, we want them to know there is a very good reason they need to pay attention to it."

Proposed UC Davis policy defines an emergency as an event that threatens life or safety and requires immediate action. In an urgent situation, there is no immediate threat, but timely information may directly affect the well-being of the recipient.

In the event of an emergency, a brief message will state the type of emergency, provide its time and location, and direct people what to do. Subsequent messages may provide updates, direct recipients to other sources of information or indicate the emergency is over.

Those with authority to activate the alerting system include UC Davis' own fire and police chiefs, public safety dispatch, and a limited number of senior officials on the Davis and Sacramento campuses. To send an alert, an authorized official will use the Web or a telephone to access the emergency alert system, create a message, designate recipients and choose the delivery method.

As part of a comprehensive emergency management program, the emergency alert system will complement other communication methods. For example, it may direct recipients to visit the campus Web site or tune in to local media.

Testing

For this week's test, the alert system will draw on contact information currently in the university online directory to send messages by e-mail, cell phone, facsimile, pager and text messaging. It will also issue a broadcast voice-mail message to the individuals chosen for the test.

In the first test, notifications will be sent to about 300 faculty and staff on the Davis and Sacramento campuses. In a second test, alerts will be sent to another 300 employees to verify the results of the first test. For the third test, alerts will be sent to 1,000 employees each at the Davis and Sacramento campuses to monitor the performance of network equipment and delivery times. For the next test, messages will be sent to 10,000 employees -- 5,000 at Davis and 5,000 at Sacramento. On the second day, about 500 students will be part of a test using only their official UC Davis e-mail accounts.

The test messages will state clearly that they are just that -- part of a test. Also, the test has been publicized to the university community, and UC Davis is notifying local elected officials and emergency agencies. UC Davis technicians are working with major telephone carriers, who will be able to monitor the impact of the tests.

Implementation

UC Davis issued a formal request for proposal for an emergency notification system in late 2006 and, following the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April 2007, accelerated work to put a system in place. Selected as the vendor was W.A.R.N. (Wide Area Rapid Notification) of Tennessee, which provides integrated calling and response management tools and maintains equipment in three locations outside the region.

Members of a UC Davis task force wrote policy and procedures for the system's use, planned its integration with existing networks and emergency systems, and designed the test.

In the second phase of implementation this spring, UC Davis will ask employees and students to voluntarily provide other contact information, such as a home phone number and personal cell number. This personal contact information will not be displayed in the university directory.

For more information about the UC Davis Emergency Alert System, visit http://www.ucdavis.edu/help/emergency_services.html.