Statement from University on Inadvertent UK Alert Message

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 12, 2014) — Today the University of Kentucky conducted an exercise to test the capabilities of different emergency response partners on campus. These exercises are an important part of keeping the university community safe by allowing the response plans to different incidents to be evaluated and to identify areas for improvement. This allows us to be able to not only test the personnel response and physical security components, but also the emergency notification communication. 

In the event of a real emergency, there are prescript messages in the emergency notification system to save valuable time in alerting the campus community. Today, that message was sent out inadvertently before being edited to identify that the incident today was only an exercise and not a real emergency. A corrected notification was immediately sent out to clarify that the incident was only an exercise.

We apologize for any concern or confusion caused by the message. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Carl Nathe, 859-257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu