General
The University of Utah’s Campus Alert System is designed to reach everyone on campus in the best way possible during an emergency. Alerts may be sent by SMS text messaging, email, social media, and pushed to U Heads Up! or other mobile apps. The sending modes used depend on the threat to life, the timing of the risk or hazard, and are informed by federal guidance. When possible, alerts are color-coded according to level of importance for quick identification.
Emergencies needing campus-wide communication include, but are not limited to:
- Snow closures
- Some building closures
- Significant traffic interruptions
- Severe power outages
- Gas leaks
- Active threats to life safety
Depending on the hazard or threat, some notifications may be tailored to specific buildings on campus. For instance, an alert may be targeted to students, faculty and staff who have classes or offices in a building that experiences a significant interruption.
As a student or employee (including part-time/contract) of the university, you are automatically signed up to receive notification through your official university email.
Please note that text messages are the fastest, most reliable way to contact you. You may enter up to three text message numbers. Your text numbers will ONLY be used for emergency alerts.
Simply provide your most current contact information by logging in to CIS at cis.utah.edu and selecting the Campus Alert link. You can enter up to three mobile numbers and one email address as an alternate to your official university email address. Click Save when you are finished.
Email alerts will come from the sender “Campus Alert" with a return address of “emergency@utah.edu”. Always be suspicious of email asking for your personal information. For more information about email phishing and how to avoid it, visit UIT’s online knowledge base. In an emergency, information will also be posted on the Campus Alert website at alert.utah.edu.
For easy recognition, you may want to add the above contact information to your contacts/address book. In all cases, if something about the message doesn’t feel right, please act cautiously.
Text alerts will begin with “U of U ALERT:” and end with “More info at http://alert.utah.edu” where additional information may be posted.
You cannot be removed from email alerts to your official university email address.
No. Your official contact information will not be changed by your participation in Campus Alert.
Your official records can be updated in CIS. Students, visit the Update Student Profile pagelet. Employees, select the Personal Bio/Demo Information link.
If your personal email or mobile phone number has changed, simply log in to CIS at cis.utah.edu and select the Campus Alert link. Be sure to press the Save button when you have completed your changes.
If your home or work number(s) changed, you should update your information in Campus Alert as well as your official university records.
Your official records can be updated in CIS. Students, visit the Update Student Profile pagelet. Employees, select the Personal Bio/Demo Information link.
You will be signed up as long as you are an active student or employee of the university. (Students may receive messages up to one semester following graduation.)
You will be reminded to review your contact information and preferences once a year.
If you feel you are receiving messages in error, please contact the Campus Help Desk at 801-581-4000.
The information entered into Campus Alert will only be used for notification purposes. Your information will be accessible to a small number of university employees. Our notification service vendor, RAVE Mobile Safety, will also have access to your information and operates under tight security.
No. Message delivery is dependent on many factors, including our local phone carrier networks. Depending on the nature and scale of the emergency, message delivery may be unavailable or delayed. Text messages can become lost or slow during busy times.
However, we have seen that most Campus Alert text messages reach their destination within 3 to 5 minutes.
As a student or employee (including part-time/contract) of the university, you are automatically signed up to receive notification through your official university email.
Students are considered active if they have registered for the current or previous two semesters.
You need to add emergency@utah.edu to your email program’s “safe sender” list. This can usually be accomplished by adding both email addresses to you email's contacts/address book. Call the Campus Help Desk at 801-581-4000 for assistance, or visit your email program's documentation. Information on UMail junk mail handling can be found here . Follow the links below for help provided by the vendors:
Students: Your official email is your UMail address (uNID@utah.edu). This cannot be changed. To customize your address or forward your UMail to another email account, log in to Campus Infomation System (CIS), and select UMail Settings from the My UMail box.
Employees: Visit CIS and, select the Personal Bio/Demo Information link. Scroll down to the Email Addresses header, and click the Change email addresses button.
You cannot be removed from email alerts to your official university email address.
Text Messaging
You can provide up to three text-enabled phone numbers via CIS. Log in to CIS at cis.utah.edu, and click on the Campus Alert link. Enter your mobile phone numbers in the text-enabled phone number fields. Be sure to press the Save button when you are done.
Please note that text messages can be delayed for many reasons, so we encourage you to tell others around you as you receive the Campus Alert.
If you signed up for Campus Alert but did not receive a text message, there could be a delay in the system. If you have not signed up yet, you can receive text message alerts by providing a text-enabled phone number via CIS. Log in to CIS at cis.utah.edu, and click on the Campus Alert link. Enter your mobile phone numbers in the text-enabled phone number fields. Be sure to press the Save button when you are done. A confirmation message will come to your phone within 24 hours from the short code 22911.
Any of the following short codes are legitimate Campus Alerts being sent by RAVE Mobile Safety: 226787, 67283, 78015, or 81437. Please save these numbers and program them as Campus Alert in your contacts, so that you can quickly recognize this number as the official source of university messages.
Depending on the time of day you saved your cell phone number in CIS, you should expect the confirmation request to arrive that evening or the following day.
Please check with your mobile phone provider to find out if your device accepts text messages. You may also want to check with your provider to see if text messaging has been enabled. You may need to subscribe to a text messaging plan in order to receive or reply to text messages. For additional help, please report the issue to the Campus Help Desk at 801-581-4000.
No. If your mobile phone was already submitted to our database, you should be confirmed to receive text message alerts from us. However, you may also test to find out by texting the word “START” to 81437 and you will receive a reply with the following: "Text received. You will now receive SMS alerts."
All University students, faculty and staff will receive email notifications, but they may be delayed by hours because of technological limitations in sending out mass emails.
You may choose to not be notified via text messaging by logging into CIS and removing your phone numbers in the Campus Alert tile.
However, we strongly discourage removing your text message phone numbers because SMS messaging is the quickest and most reliable way to provide emergency information.
No. Once your phone number has been enrolled, it stays registered within the system.
Yes. You will be charged according to the plan in place with your service provider.