Simon's Rock
Emergency Alert System/Emergency Alert Notification
Bard College at Simon's Rock, a small early-college campus that grants only associate's and bachelor's degrees, runs a free Emergency Alert System that reaches the community by cell and landline phone, email, and voicemail, with campus-wide Clery timely warnings sent separately through the College email system to all students and employees.
Read the official policyInstitution
Bard College at Simon's Rock
Private Bachelors · MA
~314 studentsEmergency Alert System
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
What the Emergency Alert System doesverbatim
Bard College at Simon's Rock's Emergency Alert System is designed to alert individual participants when an emergency occurs that requires immediate community attention or action.
- Frames the system around individual-participant alerting for emergencies requiring immediate attention, distinct from the College's separate timely-warning process.
Caller-ID and sender identificationverbatim
Caller-ID enabled phones will receive messages from 413-644-4772, and email messages will come from EmergencyAlert@simons-rock.edu.
- Publishes a specific outbound phone number and sender email address so a recipient can verify a genuine alert.
Free of charge, self-maintained registrationverbatim
The Emergency Alert system is provided free of charge to active Bard College at Simon's Rock staff, faculty, and students, with no cost associated with participation in the service.
- States the no-cost basis of participation for the full active campus community.
Timely warning distinct from the Emergency Alert Systemverbatim
When a situation arises that constitutes an ongoing or continuing threat, a campus-wide timely warning is issued to the campus community through the College email system to all students and employees, and may be supplemented by the College's Emergency Alert System.
- Draws the line between the Clery timely-warning channel (campus email) and the multi-channel Emergency Alert System, which is a supplement, not a substitute.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- The Emergency Alert System is designed to alert individual participants when an emergency occurs that requires immediate community attention or action. Separately, a campus-wide timely warning is issued when a situation constitutes an ongoing or continuing threat to the community.
- Who decides
- The Campus Safety office, which is staffed 24 hours a day, operates the Emergency Alert System and works closely with the Office of Campus Life, the Council for Equity and Inclusion, the Wellness Center, and Physical Plant; a single named approving official beyond Campus Safety was not found in the public sources reviewed.
- Timeliness standard
- A specific minutes-based timing standard was not found in the public sources reviewed; the system is framed around immediate community attention or action for emergencies and the timely-warning process for ongoing threats.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Simon's Rock separates its Clery-mandated timely warning, issued campus-wide by email to all students and employees for ongoing or continuing threats, from its broader Emergency Alert System, which may supplement (but is not required for) a timely warning.
- Testing cadence
- A stated testing cadence was not found in the public sources reviewed.
- Scope & limits
- Participation is free of charge to active students, faculty, and staff, but delivery depends on accurate, self-maintained contact information; the College states it is the responsibility of students, faculty, and staff to keep that information current.
ChannelsPhone CallEmailSms
Analysis
Reading the policy
Simon's Rock is a tiny, four-year early-college campus (314 students in 2024-25) that nonetheless publishes a full Emergency Alert System page distinguishing it from the routine Clery timely-warning process. The Emergency Alert System is described as designed to alert individual participants when an emergency occurs that requires immediate community attention or action, reaching people through several redundant channels at once: phone calls to registered cell and landline numbers, email, voicemail, and direct messages to all voicemail accounts campus-wide.
The page gives unusually concrete technical detail for a campus this size: caller-ID-enabled phones will show the alert as coming from a specific number, 413-644-4772, and alert emails arrive from a dedicated address, EmergencyAlert@simons-rock.edu. That level of specificity (a single documented outbound number and sender address) is exactly the kind of detail that lets a recipient verify a real alert against a spoofed one, and is rare among the small-college policies in this archive.
Registration responsibility is placed squarely on the individual: it is the responsibility of students, faculty, and staff to keep contact information accurate and up to date in order to receive notifications, and participation carries no cost, a detail the College states explicitly ("provided free of charge... with no cost associated with participation in the service"). Simon's Rock separates the Emergency Alert System from its Clery timely-warning obligation: when a situation constitutes an ongoing or continuing threat, a campus-wide timely warning is issued through the College email system to all students and employees, and that timely warning may be supplemented by, but is not synonymous with, the Emergency Alert System. Campus Safety, which staffs the campus 24 hours a day, operates alongside the Office of Campus Life, the Council for Equity and Inclusion, the Wellness Center, and Physical Plant in the College's broader emergency-response structure.
Takeaways
Key findings
Simon's Rock enrolls only 314 students yet publishes a fully documented, multi-channel Emergency Alert System (phone, email, voicemail) with a specific caller-ID number and sender address.
The College explicitly separates its Clery timely-warning process (campus email to all students and employees) from the broader Emergency Alert System, which supplements but does not replace it.
Participation is free of charge, but the College places the burden of keeping contact information current on individual students, faculty, and staff.
As a bachelor's-granting early-college campus with no graduate programs, Simon's Rock fills a genuinely under-documented institutional niche in campus alerting policy.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningclery-actprivate-bachelorsmassachusettsearly-collegesmall-college
Added 2026-07-20Updated 2026-07-20Via ingestion