Cal Poly
Cal Poly Emergency Notification (PolyAlert) and Timely Warning Policy
PolyAlert is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's primary emergency-notification system, a text-messaging service that distributes brief messages by email, SMS text, and voice in situations posing imminent physical threats to the campus community; its Clery framing is set out in the Cal Poly University Police Annual Security Report.
Read the official policyInstitution
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Public Masters · CA
~22,485 studentsPolyAlert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
What PolyAlert is and when it is usedverbatim
The Cal Poly Emergency Notification System is a text messaging service that distributes brief messages in situations posing imminent physical threats to the campus community.
- — Defines PolyAlert's threshold ('imminent physical threats') and its core delivery method (a text-messaging service).
Delivery channelsverbatim
Using Short Message System (SMS) technology, the system conveys messages to registered cellular phones, other wireless devices and all Cal Poly email addresses.
- — Confirms SMS to registered devices plus all Cal Poly email addresses; the broader emergency-management page adds voice as a third channel.
Primary tool / channelsverbatim
PolyAlert is Cal Poly's primary tool for delivering critical emergency information to help ensure the safety of our community. PolyAlert can distribute emergency notifications through email, SMS text, and voice.
- — Establishes PolyAlert as the primary emergency channel and lists all three delivery modes: email, SMS text, and voice.
Typical alert contentverbatim
Typical alerts sent out on this system include warnings of potential hazards, emergency instructions, evacuation orders, and other similar messages.
- — Illustrates the action-oriented scope of PolyAlert messages: hazard warnings, instructions, and evacuation orders.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- PolyAlert distributes brief messages in situations posing imminent physical threats to the campus community — typically warnings of potential hazards, emergency instructions, and evacuation orders. Under the Clery Act, an emergency notification is issued upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees on campus. A separate timely warning is issued when a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community exists following a reported Clery Act crime on Clery Act geography.
- Who decides
- University Police leadership (Chief of Police) in conjunction with the Clery Director determine whether to issue an emergency notification; for timely warnings, the Chief of Police confers with the Clery Director to determine whether the incident meets all necessary factors.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notifications are issued without unnecessary delay upon confirmation; timely warnings must be issued in a prompt manner, appropriate for the circumstances, without unnecessary delay.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Emergency notifications (immediate threat, confirmation standard) and timely warnings (serious or ongoing threat from a Clery crime on Clery geography) are handled as distinct Clery obligations, with PolyAlert available as a distribution channel for either.
- Testing cadence
- Cal Poly's published PolyAlert material does not state an exact testing-cadence sentence reproducible here; the Cal Poly University Police Annual Security Report describes testing of the emergency notification system consistent with the Clery requirement to test at least annually. (Not verbatim-confirmed.)
- Scope & limits
- PolyAlert is reserved for imminent physical threats; routine information is not sent through it. SMS/voice delivery requires registering a cell-phone number (up to two) in the Cal Poly Portal, while Cal Poly email addresses are enrolled automatically. Emergency notification may be withheld where it would compromise efforts to contain or respond to the emergency; timely warnings are limited to Clery crimes on Clery Act geography that pose a serious or ongoing threat.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
PolyAlert is described by the Cal Poly Police Department as 'the Cal Poly Emergency Notification System ... a text messaging service that distributes brief messages in situations posing imminent physical threats to the campus community.' The university's Department of Emergency Management calls it 'Cal Poly's primary tool for delivering critical emergency information,' noting that 'PolyAlert can distribute emergency notifications through email, SMS text, and voice.' Typical alerts include warnings of potential hazards, emergency instructions, evacuation orders, and other similar messages. Cal Poly email addresses are automatically enrolled, but the university urges anyone with a Cal Poly Portal account to register up to two cell-phone numbers via the Personal Info tab at my.calpoly.edu so they also receive text alerts.
The Clery framework behind PolyAlert lives in the Cal Poly University Police Annual Security Report. Emergency notifications are issued upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on campus — the standard Clery emergency-notification trigger. The decision is made by University Police leadership in conjunction with the Clery Director, and the notification is issued without unnecessary delay, subject to the usual exception for situations where notification would compromise efforts to contain or respond to the emergency.
Cal Poly keeps emergency notifications distinct from Clery timely warnings. Per the ASR, a timely warning is issued when it is determined that a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community exists, following a report of a Clery Act crime that occurred on Clery Act geography; when University Police is notified of such a crime, the Chief of Police confers with the Clery Director to determine whether the incident meets all of the necessary factors. Timely warnings 'must be issued in a prompt manner, appropriate for the circumstances, without unnecessary delay,' and a single PolyAlert message can serve as either an emergency notification or, where appropriate, a timely-warning distribution channel.
Because Cal Poly's official afd.calpoly.edu host returns HTTP 403 to automated fetching in this environment, the verbatim excerpts below were captured from official Cal Poly Police and Emergency Management page text as reproduced in search results and corroborated across multiple independent queries; the Clery-specific decision-authority and testing detail is paraphrased from the Annual Security Report. The ASR's exact testing-cadence sentence was not reproducible in search results, so it is reported only as the general Clery 'at least annually' expectation rather than quoted.
Takeaways
Key findings
PolyAlert is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's primary emergency-notification system — a text-messaging service that sends brief messages in situations posing imminent physical threats, via email, SMS text, and voice.
Cal Poly email addresses are auto-enrolled; students, faculty, staff, and auxiliary employees may register up to two cell-phone numbers in the Cal Poly Portal to also receive text alerts.
Emergency notifications follow the Clery standard — confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation with an immediate threat to health or safety on campus — issued without unnecessary delay.
Timely warnings are a separate Clery track for serious or ongoing threats from a reported Clery crime on Clery geography; the Chief of Police confers with the Clery Director on whether the incident meets all necessary factors, and warnings must be issued promptly without unnecessary delay.
Typical PolyAlert messages are action-oriented: warnings of potential hazards, emergency instructions, and evacuation orders.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
4 documented times Cal Poly’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningclery-actpolyalertpublic-masterscaliforniacsu
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion