Hunter
Emergency Updates and CUNY Alert (Emergency Notification & Timely Warning)
Hunter College's emergency notification policy provides that "Hunter College will initiate and provide, without delay, immediate notifications to the appropriate segment(s) of the CUNY community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, employees and visitors occurring on campus," delivered through the University-wide CUNY Alert system, which "allow[s] you to receive text, email and/or voice alerts of emergencies or weather related closings on your campus." A separate Clery timely warning track covers serious or repeatable crimes.
Read the official policyInstitution
Hunter College, City University of New York
Public Masters · NY
~22,538 studentsCUNY Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Emergency notification 'without delay' standardverbatim
Hunter College will initiate and provide, without delay, immediate notifications to the appropriate segment(s) of the CUNY community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, employees and visitors occurring on campus.
- — States the Clery emergency-notification standard: initiate without delay upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat.
Timely warning standard (as soon as practicable)verbatim
The Timely Warning Notice, specifically related to compliance with the federal Clery Act, requires colleges and universities to notify students and employees whenever there is a threat that a serious crime is ongoing or may be repeated–so that campus community members can protect themselves from harm. Timely warning notices will be distributed as soon as practicable, with the goal of preventing similar occurrences.
- — Distinguishes timely warnings (serious crime ongoing or may be repeated) from emergency notifications and sets the 'as soon as practicable' timing standard.
Timely warning channel and Public Safety roleverbatim
If a situation arises either on- or off-campus that constitutes an ongoing threat, a campus-wide "timely warning" will be issued through the college email system to all students, faculty and staff. Additionally, the Office of Public Safety may also send out a notice using the CUNY ALERT system depending on the particular circumstances of the crime, especially in situations that could pose an immediate threat to the community and individuals.
- — Specifies the college email system as the default timely-warning channel and the Office of Public Safety's discretion to escalate to CUNY Alert.
CUNY Alert channelsverbatim
CUNY Alert allows you to receive text, email and/or voice alerts of emergencies or weather related closings on your campus.
- — Identifies the three CUNY Alert delivery channels (text, email, voice) and that alerts cover both emergencies and weather-related closings.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Emergency notifications are initiated without delay upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, employees and visitors occurring on campus. Timely warnings are issued whenever there is a threat that a serious crime is ongoing or may be repeated, on- or off-campus.
- Who decides
- The Office of Public Safety owns the operational process: it issues campus-wide timely warnings through the college email system and may also send notices via CUNY Alert depending on the circumstances of the crime. Emergency notifications are initiated by the college upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notifications are provided 'without delay' / 'immediate' upon confirmation. Timely warning notices 'will be distributed as soon as practicable, with the goal of preventing similar occurrences.'
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Explicit two-track Clery model citing the Jeanne Clery Act and 34 CFR 668.46(g): emergency notifications (without delay, for significant emergencies/dangerous situations posing an immediate threat) versus timely warnings (as soon as practicable, for serious crimes that are ongoing or may be repeated).
- Testing cadence
- No verbatim testing-cadence statement specific to Hunter was found on the public pages reviewed.
- Scope & limits
- Notifications go to 'the appropriate segment(s) of the CUNY community' and may be college-specific or University-wide. New students, faculty and staff are auto-enrolled in CUNY Alert; members manage text/voice/email preferences via CUNYfirst (CUNY Alert Preferences), and guests (e.g., parents, contractors) can use Everbridge guest accounts. CUNY Alert is hosted by Everbridge as part of NY-Alert and has run since January 2008.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
Hunter College, a senior college of the City University of New York, structures its campus-warning program around the federal Clery distinction between emergency notifications and timely warnings, delivered through CUNY's shared CUNY Alert platform. On the emergency-notification track, Hunter's Emergency Updates and CUNY Alert policy commits that the college "will initiate and provide, without delay, immediate notifications to the appropriate segment(s) of the CUNY community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, employees and visitors occurring on campus." The policy ties this duty to the Jeanne Clery Act and 34 CFR 668.46(g), and the trigger is confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat.
The timely-warning track is distinct and addresses Clery-reportable crimes. Per Hunter, "The Timely Warning Notice, specifically related to compliance with the federal Clery Act, requires colleges and universities to notify students and employees whenever there is a threat that a serious crime is ongoing or may be repeated," so that community members can protect themselves; "Timely warning notices will be distributed as soon as practicable, with the goal of preventing similar occurrences." Hunter's procedures describe the distribution mechanics: "If a situation arises either on- or off-campus that constitutes an ongoing threat, a campus-wide 'timely warning' will be issued through the college email system to all students, faculty and staff," and "the Office of Public Safety may also send out a notice using the CUNY ALERT system depending on the particular circumstances of the crime, especially in situations that could pose an immediate threat to the community and individuals." The Office of Public Safety is the operational owner, and individuals are urged to report crimes to Public Safety as soon as possible.
The delivery layer is the University-wide CUNY Alert emergency notification system. CUNY states that "CUNY Alert allows you to receive text, email and/or voice alerts of emergencies or weather related closings on your campus," that the system has been in use since January 2008, and that it is hosted by Everbridge as part of New York State's all-hazards alert and notification system, NY-Alert. Alerts "may be college specific or University-wide," covering anything affecting public safety for the CUNY community, such as police activity, flooding, or power outages.
On scope and registration, CUNY auto-enrolls new students, faculty and staff in CUNY Alert with accounts pre-filled with their college affiliation and CUNY email address; members manage delivery preferences (phones for voice and text, email addresses) by logging into CUNYfirst and selecting CUNY Alert Preferences, while parents, contractors and other interested parties can set up Everbridge guest accounts. The public pages reviewed reproduce strong verbatim activation and timing language but do not state a fixed system-test cadence for Hunter specifically, so testing is noted as not reproduced rather than asserted.
Takeaways
Key findings
Hunter 'will initiate and provide, without delay, immediate notifications' upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat — citing the Clery Act and 34 CFR 668.46(g).
Timely warnings are a separate Clery track for serious crimes that are ongoing or may be repeated, 'distributed as soon as practicable.'
Timely warnings default to the college email system; the Office of Public Safety may escalate to CUNY Alert depending on the crime's circumstances.
CUNY Alert delivers text, email and/or voice alerts, has operated since January 2008, and is hosted by Everbridge as part of New York State's NY-Alert; alerts may be college-specific or University-wide.
New students, faculty and staff are auto-enrolled in CUNY Alert and manage preferences via CUNYfirst; guests can use Everbridge guest accounts.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
1 documented time Hunter’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningcuny-alerthunter-collegecunycleryeverbridge
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion