FSC

Omnilert Emergency Notification and Campus Emergency Operations (ASR)

FLAnnual Security ReportOmnilerthigh confidence

Florida Southern College's Annual Safety Report brands Omnilert for automatic cell-phone text emergency enrollment of students and employees who provide numbers, pairs campus-wide email with text alerts from DCSS, tests Omnilert every 8 hours inside Campus Safety, and places emergency operations under the President with coordination by the Director of Campus Safety & Security under the Emergency Director.

Read the official policy

Institution

Florida Southern College

Private Liberal Arts · FL

~3,000 studentsOmnilert

In the policy’s own words

What the policy says

Omnilert auto-enroll text and campus-wide emailverbatim

In the event of an emergency on campus, DCSS will send a campus-wide e-mail and issue a text message alert to all members of the campus community. The College uses text messaging for conveying time- sensitive or emergency information directly to cell phones. All students and employees who provide the College with their cell phone number will be automatically enrolled in this service. Any person wishing to opt out of this service may do so by following the opt-out instructions received in any text received through Omnilert; however, this is not recommended by the College.

Branded Omnilert auto-enroll with DCSS email+text pairing.

FSC ASR emergency notification delivery

Immediate notification upon confirmation with exceptionverbatim

Upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees, the College will immediately notify the campus community. The only reason the College would not immediately issue a notification for a confirmed emergency or dangerous situation would be if doing so would compromise efforts to assist a victim, contain the emergency, respond to the emergency, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.

Local immediate-notification standard with professional-judgment exception.

FSC ASR immediate notification standard

President and Director of Campus Safety emergency authorityverbatim

All emergency operations shall be directed by the President of the College or his designee. All emergency operations shall be coordinated by the Director of Campus Safety & Security under the direction of the Emergency Director.

Named President, Director of Campus Safety & Security, and Emergency Director.

FSC ASR emergency operations authority

Omnilert tested every 8 hours inside Campus Safetyverbatim

The Omnilert Emergency Notification System is tested every 8 hours on a daily basis inside the Office of Campus Safety and Security.

Highly local 8-hour daily Omnilert testing cadence.

FSC ASR Omnilert testing

Announced test email and archived logsverbatim

DCSS maintains a log of all completed tests. Documentation of the test is archived in the Florida Southern College, in the Office of Campus Safety. The log lists the date and time, however, prior to an announced test, the Director of Campus Safety & Security sends out an email to all faculty, staff and students informing of the pending test. Unannounced tests are also archived with the Florida Southern Safety Operations Specialist.

Named Safety Operations Specialist and Director email pre-notice for announced tests.

FSC ASR test documentation

At a glance

How this policy works

When it activates: Immediate notification upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees (examples in ASR include civil unrest/riot, explosion, infection outbreak, nearby chemical/hazardous waste spill).
Who decides: All emergency operations directed by the President of the College or designee; coordinated by the Director of Campus Safety & Security under the direction of the Emergency Director. Officer on duty notifies DCSS and initiates notification by calling appropriate College administrators. Building/Facility Coordinators appointed under each Administrator, Dean, and Department Head.
Timeliness standard: College will immediately notify the campus community upon confirmation of immediate threat, unless notification would compromise efforts to assist a victim, contain, respond to, or mitigate the emergency. Omnilert tested every 8 hours daily inside Campus Safety; announced tests emailed by Director of Campus Safety & Security; unannounced tests archived by Safety Operations Specialist.
Emergency notification vs. timely warning: ASR pairs immediate emergency notification procedures with multi-channel Omnilert delivery and separate Timely Warning TOC section; operational weather-update series used for Hurricane Milton campus closures.
Testing cadence: Omnilert Emergency Notification System tested every 8 hours on a daily basis inside Office of Campus Safety and Security. Quarterly fire drills for all residence halls. DCSS maintains test log with date and time; announced tests pre-notified by email.
Scope & limits: Auto-enrollment for students and employees who provide cell numbers; campus-wide email requires College email account from Rinker Technology Center. Public may use Emergency Hot Line 863.680.4101 and flsouthern.edu homepage.

ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallWebsiteUnknown

Analysis

Reading the policy

Florida Southern College (Lakeland, Florida) is a private liberal-arts college. Its ASR is institution-specific: DCSS issues campus-wide email and Omnilert text for time-sensitive emergencies; students and employees who provide cell numbers are auto-enrolled with opt-out available in each Omnilert text (not recommended). Immediate notification issues upon confirmation of significant emergency or dangerous situation with a professional-judgment exception. The Omnilert system is tested every 8 hours inside the Office of Campus Safety and Security. All emergency operations are directed by the President or designee and coordinated by the Director of Campus Safety & Security under the Emergency Director. Building/Facility Coordinators under each Administrator/Dean/Department Head have named on-scene duties. An Emergency Hot Line (863.680.4101) and flsouthern.edu home page are additional surfaces. Weather updates are also published on the Safety and Security weather-updates page used operationally during Hurricane Milton.

Takeaways

Key findings

Omnilert is the branded emergency text system with auto-enrollment for provided cell numbers.

President directs emergency operations; Director of Campus Safety coordinates under Emergency Director.

Omnilert is tested every 8 hours inside Campus Safety.

Emergency Hot Line 863.680.4101 and flsouthern.edu supplement mass notification.

Policy, meet practice

When this system actually fired

1 documented time FSC’s alert system was used, from the case archive.

Provenance

Sources

Clery ASR
Annual Safety Report and Crime Statistics - Florida Southern College
flsouthern.edu
archived copy