FAMU
University Policy: FAMU Alert
FAMU ALERT is the emergency notification system of Florida A&M University — a public land-grant HBCU in Tallahassee — run on the Everbridge platform and governed by the standalone University Policy: FAMU Alert, which restricts the system to life-safety situations and is coordinated by the Department of Public Safety and the Emergency Management Office.
Read the official policyInstitution
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Hbcu · FL
~9,700 studentsFAMU ALERT
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Life-safety-only scope limitverbatim
Individuals who have the authority to activate the FAMU ALERT System must ensure that it is activated for life safety situations only and that it is not used for routine notifications.
- — Defines the policy's hard scope limit. The same sentence was reproduced identically across two independent retrievals of the official policy text, so flagged verbatim; the FAMU host 403-blocks direct fetch, so it could not be byte-confirmed against the live PDF.
Authorized activatorsreconstructed
The following University personnel may authorize the activation of the FAMU ALERT System for emergency notifications or timely warning messages: Assistant Vice President of Safety and Security and Chief of Police
- — Names the activation authorities. Reconstructed from a search-snippet rendering of the policy (the policy lists additional designated officials); host 403-blocks direct fetch, so flagged reconstructed rather than verbatim.
FAMU ALERT system descriptionreconstructed
FAMU ALERT is a communications system/application (Everbridge) that provides timely and accurate information about emergency situations that can impact the university.
- — Describes the platform (Everbridge). Captured from the FAMU Alert page via search extraction; host 403-blocks direct fetch, so flagged reconstructed.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- As soon as there is confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees, the FAMU ALERT system is activated without delay. The policy defines an 'Immediate Threat' as an imminent or impending threat to health or safety. Timely warnings are issued separately for reported criminal incidents that continue to pose a threat to the University community.
- Who decides
- Designated University personnel — including the Assistant Vice President of Safety and Security and the Chief of Police — may authorize activation of the FAMU ALERT System for emergency notifications or timely warnings. Alerts may be initiated by trained representatives within FAMU-DPS or the FAMU Emergency Management Office. For timely warnings, the Police Chief or designee reviews reports to determine whether an ongoing threat warrants a warning.
- Timeliness standard
- Upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation, the notification system must be activated right away (without delay), unless doing so would compromise efforts to contain the emergency. One or more notification components are used depending on the severity and type of incident.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- FAMU distinguishes emergency notifications (issued upon confirmation of a significant emergency / dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to health or safety) from timely warnings (issued for reported Clery-reportable crimes that continue to pose a threat to the community). Both are documented in the FAMU Annual Security Report.
- Testing cadence
- The system has many redundant components that are regularly tested to ensure proper functionality. A specific recurring numeric cadence was not byte-confirmed from the public pages.
- Scope & limits
- Individuals with authority to activate the FAMU ALERT System must ensure it is activated for life-safety situations only and not used for routine notifications. Emails and text messages are used only for events that present imminent danger or significantly impact university operations.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallPush NotificationDesktop PopupTwitter XWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
Florida A&M University operates its alerting program under a dedicated University Policy: FAMU Alert (effective November 18, 2022) rather than burying the rules inside the Annual Security Report alone. The student-facing platform, FAMU ALERT, is a communications system built on Everbridge that delivers time-sensitive information about emergencies that could impact the university; it is free to students, faculty, and staff, who keep their contact details current in the iRattler system so that alert text messages reach them.
The **trigger** follows the Clery standard: as soon as there is confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees, the notification system is activated without delay, and one or more notification components are used depending on the severity and type of incident. The policy defines an "Immediate Threat" as an imminent or impending threat to the health or safety of the campus community. FAMU separately maintains a **timely-warning** obligation: it issues a timely warning for reported criminal incidents that continue to pose a threat to the University community, with the Police Chief or designee reviewing reports to determine whether an ongoing threat exists and a warning is warranted — the classic Clery split between emergency notifications (immediate threat) and timely warnings (continuing threat from reported crimes).
**Decision authority** is named explicitly. Designated University personnel — including the Assistant Vice President of Safety and Security and the Chief of Police — may authorize activation of the FAMU ALERT System for emergency notifications or timely warnings, and FAMU Alerts may be initiated by trained representatives within FAMU-DPS or the FAMU Emergency Management Office, selecting from pre-scripted message templates. A defining feature of the policy is its **scope limit**: those with activation authority must ensure the system is activated for life-safety situations only and is not used for routine notifications.
**Channels and testing.** FAMU ALERT delivers via text message, phone call, email, and app push notifications through the FAMU App, with weather alerts available as an opt-in; Everbridge Nixle channels serve as a redundancy so parents, visitors, vendors, and fans without university credentials can still receive emergency information, and Alertus desktop notifications push messages to networked computers. The university states the system has many redundant components that are regularly tested to ensure proper functionality, and it publishes an Annual Security Report documenting these procedures.
Takeaways
Key findings
FAMU runs a standalone 'University Policy: FAMU Alert' (effective Nov. 18, 2022) on the Everbridge platform, distinct from (but cross-referenced by) the Annual Security Report.
Activation is tied to the Clery standard — confirmation of a significant emergency / dangerous situation posing an immediate threat to health or safety — and must occur without delay.
The system is restricted to life-safety situations only and may not be used for routine notifications, a hard scope limit written into the policy.
The Assistant VP of Safety and Security and the Chief of Police are named activation authorities; trained FAMU-DPS or Emergency Management initiators send pre-scripted messages.
Channels include text, phone call, email, FAMU App push, Alertus desktop, and Everbridge Nixle (for non-credentialed visitors); redundant components are regularly tested.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
4 documented times FAMU’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningcleryhbcueverbridgeflorida
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion