Upcoming Test of the Emergency Notification System
October 23, 2023
Dear members of the Northwestern community,
We have no higher priority than your safety and security. To ensure Northwestern can quickly and effectively warn students, faculty, staff and visitors about an immediate or imminent threat on campus, the University will test its campus-wide emergency notification system (Rave) this week. Emergency messages are sent from AlertNU.
An AlertNU test message will be sent to you at
10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023,
via text, email and phone.
It is vitally important that the University can reach you during an emergency or other serious threat. Please take a moment to verify your emergency messaging contact information in myHR or CAESAR and make relevant updates as needed. Emergency communications sent by text message are often issued the fastest. The following guides can assist you with verifying or updating your mobile number for emergency notifications via text.
- Student guide to add/update emergency text alerts in CAESAR
- Faculty and staff guide to add/update emergency text alerts in myHR
You may also review these steps to log in to the emergency notification system (Rave) to validate your emergency messaging contact information uploaded from myHR or CAESAR.
Immediate or imminent threats
In the event of an immediate threat, an urgent message titled “AlertNU” will notify members of the Northwestern community via text, email and, potentially, phone. If the emergency requires immediate action, such as an active aggressor, information also will be posted on the University’s homepage and social media channels.
AlertNU messages will be denoted with the color red, where possible. Some communications, including text messages, are limited to plain text and will not include the color red.
Emergency email messages will appear with the following header:
To learn more about the procedures to keep you and others safe in emergency situations, Northwestern has developed this quick reference. In addition, to demonstrate how to respond in the event of a violent, life-threatening emergency on campus, Northwestern has produced a training video on the “Run, Hide, Fight” safety protocol.
Serious or continuing threats
For other critical incidents and potential safety threats, such as robberies, sexual assaults, aggravated assaults or vehicle thefts, you will receive email messages titled “Crime Notice,” denoted with the following purple header:
Please pay attention when you see these two types of alerts and follow the steps below to ensure we are all working together to secure our campus environment.
Keep your contact information current
Students, faculty and staff have their information automatically entered into the system. If your emergency messaging contact information is up to date, including your phone number, there is no need to do anything. To review, update or validate your contact information, please use these resources:
- Students: CAESAR
- Faculty and staff: myHR
- Validation steps via Rave
Encourage others to opt in
We recommend that all parents, contractors, visitors, vendors, members of the Evanston community, hospital partners in Chicago and others opt into the University emergency notification system. All can enroll in AlertNU by texting “AlertNU” to 226787. For more information, please visit the Emergency Notification Systems web page, which includes answers to frequently asked questions, and our Glossary of Terms used in emergencies.
The security of the Northwestern community is a shared responsibility that everyone takes very seriously. We thank you for your partnership and vigilance in helping to keep Northwestern safe.
Sincerely,
Bruce A. LewisChief of Police and Senior Associate Vice President