UCF’s preparations for potential emergency situations include regular tests of communication tools that provide critical information to students, staff and faculty members, and the public.
Several of those UCF Alert tools will be tested on Tuesday, April 8.
During an emergency, the UCF website is the best place for the university community and the public to find the latest updates.
Emergency functions connected with the university’s main website, www.ucf.edu, will be tested from 1 to 2 p.m. For most of that time, the UCF home page will remain active and fully functional with an alert bar at the top of the page. All messages on the alert bar will be marked as tests.
A portion of the website test will involve replacing the regular home page with an entirely text-only home page that may be used during some emergencies. To accommodate large numbers of visitors, the text-only website does not include links and search functions that are typically found on the UCF home page.
When that text-only page is active, users will not be able to access links and other search functions typically found on the UCF home page. Although other UCF web pages will not be impacted by the test, users may want to bookmark those pages in advance.
Outdoor sirens, which emit a tone followed by voice instructions, will be tested at noon.
A test emergency text message and e-mail will be sent at about 1 p.m. Messages should be received by all students and staff and faculty members who have updated cell phone information on file through MyUCF and who have not opted out of receiving emergency messages.
Updates can be made through the following steps after signing on to the MyUCF website.
Students: Click on Student Self Service, then Personal Information and then UCF Alert.
Faculty and Staff: Click on Employee Self Service, then Personal Information and then UCF Alert.
UCF provides many campus personnel who assist with emergency responses with HEARO emergency radios. Radios, which also are in key campus buildings such as residence halls and the Student Union, will be tested at 2 p.m.
More than 40 UCF buildings are equipped with indoor notification systems that emit tones followed by voice instructions during emergencies. Those systems will be tested briefly between 3 and 3:30 p.m. The tests in each building will last no more than a couple of minutes.
WUCF-89.9 FM will conduct a test of its emergency broadcast capabilities at 4 p.m.
UCF’s Twitter and Facebook pages, which serve as additional methods of notification, will be updated with information about the tests.
Visit the UCF Alert Web site for more information on the communication system that helps to keep the campus safe and informed during emergencies.