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Fall emergency notification test ran well

Miami tested its emergency notification system (ENS) at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27.

The tests were mostly successful, delivering the test message within minutes to the majority of students, staff and faculty. However, this year, slightly fewer people reported seeing the test message as quickly as desired.

Representatives of the Institutional Response Team (IRT) sent test messages via the following methods using the e2Campus program:

  • Email and text message alerts.
  • Informacast, the voice- and display-based feature for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephones and blue light emergency phone towers (Oxford campus).
  • The Four Winds Interactive digital signage system.
  • Miami Cable Television System.
  • Miami University Oxford, Regionals, myMiami and police services home pages.
  • A Twitter alert on the university account.

About 38 percent of recipients responded to a survey sent to a random list of 10,000 staff, faculty and students on all local campuses.

Ninety-three percent of survey responders reported to have received an e-mail alert. The majority of the remaining 7 percent who did not receive an e-mail alert reported that they had not checked their junk mail filter or that they were not near a computer at the time of the test.

Of 11,895 text message alerts sent to subscribers, 93 percent were delivered. Survey results showed 86 percent of those who did not receive the text alert had not registered or were unsure if they had registered to receive text alerts.

Seventy percent of survey responders said they received at least one alert within five minutes. Last year, 84 percent reported receiving a message that early.

One difference is that this year, twice as many survey respondents as last year said they were on campus but outside. A smaller portion of them heard the voiced announcements from the blue light towers this year. The IRT had staff stationed near many of the towers and found only one nonfunctioning. That tower is being checked.

Also, 25 percent of survey takers were off campus when the alert was sent, but most received a text or email notice.

Of those who were in a campus building, 35 percent reported to have heard or seen an alert via VoIP on a campus phone.  

The university’s policy is to use the ENS in cases of immediate threat to safety or closure of a campus/canceling classes. Staff continually assess the process to try to improve message delivery. Emergency procedure information is online. Links to other safety information, including a 6-minute video on how to react to a shooter, are in this news article. If you are not registered yet to receive text or email messages through the e2Campus system, you can do so starting at www.miamioh.edu/ens.

If you need assistance with your e2Campus cell phone registration, contact the IT help desk, 513-529-7900 or ithelp@miamioh.edu.