Safety & Emergencies

UAlbany Alert is the University’s official platform to communicate emergencies to the campus community — including weather-related delays and closures. UAlbany Alerts are delivered via text message, voicemail and email. 

Alerts are automatically sent to all students’ and employees’ albany.edu email addresses. 

We encourage all students and employees to sign up to also receive UAlbany Alerts via text message, voicemail and/or personal email. You can also add the contact information of another person, such as a family member, if you’d like. 

Sign up for UAlbany Alerts.

The University Police Department (UPD) serves all three of UAlbany’s campuses, with a focus on community policing. UPD is available 24 hours a day, 365 days year. 

In an emergency, immediately call the University Police Department by dialing 911 on a campus phone or 518-442-3131 on a cell phone. 

Five Quad Volunteer Ambulance Service is a New York State certified ambulance agency operated by UAlbany students.  

Five Quad provides Basic Life Support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during the fall and spring semesters. They respond to calls within a five-mile radius of UAlbany's Uptown Campus. 

In an emergency, immediately call University dispatchers by dialing 911 on a campus phone or 518-442-3131 on a cell phone. 

Student Health Services (SHS) offers student-centered quality health care, testing and pharmacy services to all UAlbany students.  

Call SHS at 518-442-5454 with general inquires. To make an appointment, call 518-442-5229 during business hours. 

Review respiratory virus guidance for students (COVID-19, flu, RSV, etc.).

Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) provides individual and couples counseling, group counseling, psychiatry, consultation and referrals to all UAlbany students.  

Contact CAPS at 518-442-5800 or [email protected] to get started.

The Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program operates a student-run, after-hours hotline when classes are in session. Conversations with their trained student volunteers are private. 

Call the Middle Earth Hotline at 518-442-5777. 

If you or someone you care about has experienced sexual or intimate partner violence, there are resources available on campus and in our local community that are here to validate and support you as you access the services that feel right for you in your healing journey.

Visit the Sexual Violence Support & Advocacy page for more information.

The Purple Pantry is open to all students, faculty and staff. It’s stocked with a variety of non-perishable foods, fresh produce and toiletries. 

Purple Threads is a professional closet offering free professional clothing to current UAlbany students. 

Sprinkler systems are installed throughout our newly renovated buildings, including student rooms. Those buildings are: 

• State Quad: Melville, Steinmetz, Tappan and Whitman Halls 

• Indigenous Quad: Mohawk Tower and Montauk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca  and Tuscarora Halls  

• Dutch Quad: Beverwyck, Ryckman, Schuyler, Ten Broeck and Van Rensselaer Halls 

• Colonial Quad: Hamilton, Herkimer and Johnson Halls 

• University Apartments: Empire Commons and Liberty Terrace 

Freedom Apartment buildings have a sprinkler in the entryway to each apartment.  

In an addressable system, each fire alarm device has its own address. If a fire alarm is activated, the fire alarm panel displays the device’s exact location.  

All buildings on Indigenous, Dutch, Colonial, Alumni and State Quads have addressable fire alarm systems.  

All apartments in Freedom Apartments, Empire Commons and Liberty Terrace have addressable devices. 
 

The Fire Alarm Project aimed to bring UAlbany into compliance with the December 2002 Trustees’ resolution, as defined by the Dean of Students in 2005, to install an integrated and fully addressable fire/smoke detection system. 

The Fire Alarm Project used existing campus fiber optic strands to the Uptown Campus heating plant control room to allow addressable signals to be monitored from two University locations: the heating plant and University Police Department offices.  

Detection devices were installed to detect any fire -elated anomalous conditions in suites/bedrooms. These devices provide an alarm notification to an initiating device actuation. Audible horns, bells and speakers are in the building. Each lobby of every building has a new fire alarm control panel that transmits the exact location of the alarm.  

The project was completed in all residence halls in 2010. Additional fire safety information can be found in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. 

This notice is completed and distributed in compliance with the New York State Kerry Rose Fire Sprinkler Notification Act. 

Bed bugs are small, flat, oval insects. They are about a quarter inch long and visible to the naked eye, if you look for them. They are very resilient and can live for more than 18 months without feeding.  

Bed bugs typically come out at night. During the day, they hide in dark crevices — like in bed frames, in mattresses, behind picture frames, in piles of clothes and in other areas where they would be difficult to detect.  

Bed bugs travel very easily in luggage. They are not uncommon in hotels, hospitals and, if you’re not careful, college residence halls. 

For more information, visit the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Bed Bugs Guide.