Information Systems Connection

During the March 24, 2011 test of the EMU Emergency Notification System (ENS) we asked you to confirm that you’d received the test message and tell us how you received it. Over 120 of you responded. Many of you confirmed that you’d received the test message multiple ways–through the Via Radio HEARO devices, through a browser pop-up alert on your computer, through a text message on your cell phone, etc.–and we appreciate that too. Each confirmation from you gave us a better picture of how our ENS system works.

And the system does work! Messages are delivered quickly and widely. More than eighty percent of those who responded received an emergency notification within three minutes of the test beginning.  Keep in mind these are response rates: many of those who received the messages didn’t respond.

The Crisis Management Preparedness Team (CMPT) will be reviewing these results and making plans to further improve communication speed and coverage. We welcome your ideas and suggestions. You can contact Jack Rutt at ruttj@emu.edu or by calling 540 432 4478 (x4478 on campus).

Also, if you haven’t signed up for EMU Alerts–the cell-phone text message portion of the ENS–please do so by visiting my.emu.edu/ics/alerts .

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On behalf of the Crisis Management Preparedness Team (CMPT) this coming Thursday Information Systems and Physical Plant personnel will conduct a test of the EMU Alerts systems. Here are the details describing the test:

DAY/DATE/TIME OF TEST:

Thursday, March 24, 2011, 9:10am

SYSTEMS TO BE TESTED:

• Email message to everyone-urgent@emu.edu
• Email message to everyone subscribed to the EMU Alerts service with e2Campus
• TXT message to everyone subscribed to the EMU Alerts service with e2Campus
• Splash Screen on all computers that are turned on and connected to the EMU network
• myEMU “Alerts Banner” and ALERTS tab notification
• HEARO in-room audio and scrolling text devices

TEST PURPOSE: The purpose of this test is to ensure that our procedures for using these emergency notification systems are functioning properly.

The test message sent to each notification system listed above will clearly state that it is only a test and that no immediate action on your part is necessary.

WHAT IS A HEARO DEVICE? This is the first time we will be testing the HEARO in-room notification devices which were deployed over the past several months to about 140 building spaces, including classrooms, across the campus. Posted near each device is a set of instructions. We urge you to review these instructions prior to Thursday’s test so that you will understand how the device operates.

TEST FEEDBACK: In order to assess the effectiveness of our notification systems and this test everyone will be invited to complete a web survey with four quick questions. The survey will be available for about 24 hours following the test from a link that will be included in each test message.

EMU ALERTS SIGN UP: The EMU Alerts service for TXT messages and email addresses (other than @emu.edu addresses) is a subscription service we encourage all current students and employees to sign up for on my.emu.edu. To sign up, login to my.emu.edu and then click on the ALERTS tab where you can then click on the EMU ALERTS SIGN UP link in the left column. From there, follow the instructions.

More information about the EMU Alerts e2Campus subscription services can be found on the Information Systems website.

During last week’s (Jan 22) test of the EMU Emergency Notification System (ENS) we asked you to confirm that you’d received the test message–and you did! We received more than 940 confirmations from over 550 individual users. Many of you confirmed that you’d received the test message multiple ways–through everyone e-mail, through a browser pop-up alert on your computer, through a text message on your cell phone, etc.–and we appreciate that too. Each confirmation from you gave us a better picture of how our ENS system works.

And the system does work! Messages are delivered quickly and widely. Sixty percent of you responded within the first twenty minutes. Over 65% of staff and 40% of faculty confirmed receipt of ENS messages; rates for students were lower. Keep in mind these are response rates: many of those who received the messages didn’t respond.

The Crisis Management Preparedness Team (CMPT) will be reviewing these results and making plans to further improve communication speed and coverage. We welcome your ideas and suggestions. You can contact Jack Rutt at ruttj@emu.edu or by calling 540 432 4478 (x4478 on campus).

Also, if you haven’t signed up for EMU Alerts–the cell-phone text message portion of the ENS–please do so by visiting www.emu.edu/emergency/signup .

More test results and details … (more…)

Shortly after 2pm on Thursday, January 22, Information Systems will be testing the EMU Emergency Notification System. This test will involve sending a test message via the following components of the EMU Emergency Notification System (EMU-ENS):

1. E-mail to everyone-urgent@emu.edu: An e-mail message will be sent to this list which contains the @emu.edu e-mail addresses of every current EMU student and employee. The message will clearly state that it is a test message. The message will encourage you to click a link in the message which will take you to the EMU-ENS confirmation page to give you the opportunity to confirm that you received the test message.
2. Web page Critical Information Alert (CIA): An alert will be posted to the EMU portal page (www.emu.edu/portal) stating that this is a test of the EMU-ENS. It will encourage you to click the MORE INFORMATION link of the CIA posting which will take you to the EMU-ENS confirmation page to give you the opportunity to tell us that you saw the test message. The EMU home page will also include a small triangle icon which, when clicked, will take you to a display of the test message posted via the CIA system.
3. EMU Alerts text message (SMS): A test message will be sent to all persons who signed up for SMS messages on the EMU Alerts system. No confirmation process is available with the SMS txt message but we will receive a report from the e2campus system telling us how many text messages were sent successfully.
4. EMU Alerts e-mail: A test message will be sent to all persons who signed up for e-mail messages on the EMU Alerts system. This e-mail message will encourage you to click a link in the message which will take you to the EMU-ENS confirmation page to give you the opportunity to confirm that you received the test message.
5. Network Access Control notification: A test message will be sent to all computers connected to the campus network system that have been authorized on the network by our newly installed network access control (NAC) system. This should appear to the user as a pop-up web browser page and will present a link that you will be encouraged to click which gives you the opportunity to confirm that you received the test message.

This exercise is ONLY A TEST of the EMU Emergency Notification System. The messages sent using each of the methods described here will clearly show that it is a test message.

For each alert component, other than the text (SMS) messages, users will be presented with a link to confirm that they received the alert. We strongly urge you to click on the confirmation link so that we can determine how many persons responded to each of the alert types. You are encouraged to click the links from each of the alert types you are exposed to, even if you had already clicked a confirmation link from another type of alert message.

In some cases you may be asked to enter your Royal username and password which provides us with additional information as to who, within our campus community, received the various kinds of alerts.

Thanks for your participation in this important test of the EMU emergency notification system.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the Information Systems Helpdesk.