UK Alert Test Today; Students, Employees Asked to Take Survey After Test
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2020) — The University of Kentucky Police Department’s Division of Crisis Management and Preparedness will conduct a test of the UK Alert system at 11:50 a.m. today, Sept. 23, 2020, and is asking the UK community to take a brief survey following the test. The survey can be accessed here: UK Alert Survey.
The test and survey are important to the university’s safety efforts and emergency preparedness procedures.
UK Alert is an emergency notification system designed for use only when an incident disrupts normal campus operations or threatens the immediate health and safety of the campus community. Alerts are issued when a serious crime or other incident (gas leak, tornado warning, etc.) occurs on campus posing a threat that requires immediate action.
All UK students, staff and faculty are registered in UK Alert with their official university email address. However, the UK community is encouraged to provide at least one other form of notification, such as a cell phone number, to receive voice calls and/or text messages. Parents, media, visitors and other interested parties may register for UK Alert on a voluntary self-subscription basis by clicking here.
Prior to today’s UK Alert test, campus community members should make sure their contact information is up to date via the myUK portal. Students can log into myUK and choose the "Student Services" tab where you will find the UK Alert link. Employees should log into myUK, choose the "Employee Self-Service" tab followed by the "UK Accounts & Services" link where you will find the UK Alert link under "UK Services." The myUK portal works optimally with Internet Explorer 9 (or lower) for PCs and Firefox for Apple products. Please report any issues to cmp@uky.edu.
The components of today’s UK Alert test include:
1. A test notification will be sent to all registered devices, including email, text messages, voice calls, Twitter, and Facebook.
2. Each emergency notification tower (outdoor blue emergency phone tower) will flash, broadcast a series of tones, followed by a recorded message, and end with short tones.
3. Voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) desktop phones on Main Campus, and a select few VoIP phones off campus, will relay emergency tones, display a test notification on the phone’s screen, and end with tones.
- UK HealthCare will not be included in this portion of the test.
4. Desktop notification (InformaCast) is available on the UK Download site. If this software is installed on a computer and is on the UK network, a test message will appear on the monitor. Note: If you have trouble downloading the software contact your department’s IT representative or call 218-HELP.
5. The test will also be displayed on UK’s www.uky.edu main home page in a banner for a short period of time.
6. All active UK Alerts can be found at www.uky.edu/alerts. Additional information and updates about campus incidents, when available, will also be posted to this website.
You may go to the UK Alert website to listen to the indoor and outdoor alert notifications and read an explanation for each.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.