Bomb Threats Elsewhere Focus Attention on U of A Emergency Sites and RazALERT

The recent series of bomb threats at several campuses across the country highlight the importance of preparation and communication in an emergency.

The University of Arkansas is prepared – with valuable information about emergency preparedness, and with RazALERT, a state of the art emergency communications system.

“Although the bomb threats in the past few days have, thankfully, all proved to be unfounded, it is always important to be prepared,” said Steve Gahagans, director of the University Police. “I urge everyone on campus to check out the emergency information available at the University of Arkansas Police website – uapd.uark.edu/emergency or on the university emergency website at emergency.uark.edu. Either of these sites will give you information to deal with emergency situations. Look them over – and bookmark one of them on your computer or cell phone. The events at LSU and the University of Texas prove it – you never know when you will need this information.”

In an emergency situation on campus, immediate and important information will come from RazALERT (pronounced “raise alert”). The system can send an emergency message to everyone on campus in a matter of minutes through text messaging, phone messages and email.

The email messages are sent automatically to everyone who has a campus email address, and are an effective way to get a message to everyone on campus. It is also the slowest way to send an emergency message – due to the nature of email and the volume of messages being sent – more than 30,000.

The fastest way to get a RazALERT message is as a text message, but to get these students have to sign up through their ISIS accounts and faculty and staff through their BASIS accounts. Students can assign one cell phone to receive a text message. Faculty and staff members can designate as many as three phones to receive text messages.

The RazALERT system will also send voice messages to as many as six land lines or cell phones for students, and up to three for faculty and staff. The voice messages are often received faster than email messages.

Text messages are necessarily short and often only contain basic information. Anyone receiving a RazALERT text can find more details on their voice or email messages – or by going to the university emergency website.

The University Police conducted a test of the RazALERT system Tuesday morning. If you did not receive a message, or did not receive it fast enough, it is time to change your RazALERT settings.

If you need help signing up phones for text or voice mail messages you can find it at razalert.uark.edu/.