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Home > Emergency Information > Methods of Emergency Notification and CommunicationMethods of Emergency Notification and Communication
The following is a listing of available notification / communication options available for use at NC State and a brief explanation of their applicability in an emergency.
Text Messaging (SMS)
Text messaging is one of the primary tools used for notification/communication, but because of limited character space is dependent on other communications methods to convey complete information. For example, a text message will allow enough characters to indicate the existence of an emergency and direct recipients to the home page for more information. Note that one can only be reach by an emergency text message if they have registered to receive such messages. See http://www.ncsu.edu/emergency-information/textsignup.php for instructions on registration.
University Home Page
If campus notification is required, a message will be posted under the “emergency” section of the university web page. If web traffic is anticipated to be high, the web page will be taken down and only the emergency message will be displayed. Concurrent with posting our emergency message on the university web page, a message will be posted on the hosted PIER site. The PIER site is considered a “back up” for the home page. The home page is considered a primary notification point.
Audible warning system
Scheduled to be operational in January 2008, the audible warning system is a system of speaker arrays located a various strategic locations on campus capable of siren and voice messaging. These could be used in the case of immediate threats to the campus
to notify campus pedestrians to either take shelter and obtain further information or to take other action as appropriate.
Campus Telephone System
The campus landline telephone system will only be used to notify “key” university personnel in case of an emergency. Call lists of key personnel such as executive officers, deans, the crisis communication team and emergency call list will be maintained by Public Affairs and distributed on a need-to-know basis. The campus hotline is not considered a primary resource in the event of a major emergency given the potential for phone traffic to overwhelm the network.
Expanded Building Liaison Emergency Contact List
The Fire Protection division of Environmental Health and Public Safety maintains an Emergency mailing list. This list contains email addresses for an expanded group of building liaisons. In case of a campuswide or localized campus emergency, an email message would be forwarded to this mailing list. The message would then be forwarded by the liaisons to building occupants.
News Media
Public media may be contacted to distribute emergency notification messages, including
- WKNC –FM (NC State student radio station)
- The Technician
- WRAL, Channel 5
- WTVD, Channel 11
- WNCN, Channel 17
- News 14, Time Warner cable channel 14
- WUNC radio
- News & Observer
- WolfBytes Radio
- WolfBytes Television (channel 85 on campus)
Public Affairs will maintain a list of public media contacts. Contact numbers for media will be maintained on the emergency call list. Public media outlets may be utilized as a primary notification tool.
Campus email broadcasted to all hands is not a primary emergency communication tool. This type of email communication will be used to distribute Crime Alerts or on an as needed basis and to provide snow closure information, typically not fast breaking emergencies.