ALBANY, N.Y. (October 17, 2007) -- The University of Albany has activated the new State University of New York messaging system, which alerts students, faculty, staff and parents when a serious emergency arises on campus.
SUNY NY Alert allows University officials to post critical information simultaneously to community members via e-mail, phone/voicemail and text messaging in the event of a campus crisis. The system was created in cooperation with the State Office of Emergency Management (SEMO) and SUNY System Administration, and requires students to input their latest contact information through their individual MyUAlbany Web pages.
"Tragedies occurring at campuses around the country have prompted us to re-examine the University's emergency communications capabilities," said Susan Herbst, Provost and Officer in Charge. "As a result, SUNY NY Alert has become our latest tool to assist the University in getting critical incident information out to our community as quickly as possible. It complements methods we already use, including broadcast emails, alerts on the UAlbany homepage, person-to-person contact, bulletin board postings and local media outreach."
In conjunction with Emergency Preparedness Week, UAlbany launched an information campaign about SUNY NY Alert, which includes flyers, T-shirts, posters, and a campus public service announcement. All urge community members to log on to MyUAlbany and provide or bring up-to-date cell phone and other contact information.
SUNY NY Alert is meant for use in critical emergencies, such as those involving imminent threats to the safety and security of the campus community, as well as for such non-critical emergency situations as class cancellations due to inclement weather. Information contained in the SUNY NY Alert databank is secure and cannot be provided or otherwise disclosed.
For more information, visit the SUNY NY Alert Web site.
Earlier this summer, New York State rolled out the New York State All-Hazards Alert and Notification web-based Portal, known as NY-ALERT. NY-ALERT will help state and local governments alert statewide, county or regional audiences of pending events such as storms, natural or man made disasters and terrorist attacks. Throughout the summer the state has been working to bring this important alert capability to the 64 State University of New York (SUNY) campuses.
