MSU
The Maroon Alert System
Mississippi State University operates Maroon Alert, an Everbridge-powered emergency notification system that informs the campus community of imminent or existing dangers through the Everbridge app, SMS text, university email, and phone calls, and also posts to the Maroon Alert website, X/Twitter, and Facebook. Students and employees are automatically enrolled, and the system is routinely tested across mobile devices, desktops, digital signage, social media, email, and the emergency website.
Read the official policyInstitution
Mississippi State University
Public R1 · MS
~23,086 studentsMaroon Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Everbridge app first notificationverbatim
If you have downloaded and installed the Everbridge App, your first notification usually appears there.
- — Confirms the platform/vendor (Everbridge) and that app push is the primary first-touch channel for app users.
Routine test coverageverbatim
This test will include notifications to mobile devices, university desktops, campus digital signage, social media, university email accounts and the emergency website.
- — Enumerates the channels exercised during a routine test; recurring across multiple years of test announcements.
Siren testing cadenceverbatim
Sirens are usually tested at noon on the first Tuesday of each month, during clear weather.
- — Outdoor warning sirens are operated jointly by the City of Starkville and the university.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Maroon Alert is used to inform the university community of imminent or existing dangers; outside of testing, text messages are sent only in cases of imminent danger (for example, when campus is included in a National Weather Service Tornado Warning or other extreme weather event).
- Who decides
- Operated by the MSU Office of Emergency Management (Emergency Manager Brent Crocker). A single named activation authority is not published in the reproduced material.
- Timeliness standard
- Designed for imminent or existing dangers; no numeric minutes-based timeliness standard is published in the reproduced material.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Emergency-notification system for imminent/existing dangers; web banners distinguish an emergency (yellow) from an advisory (blue).
- Testing cadence
- Routine Maroon Alert tests are announced and conducted periodically (e.g., noon on a scheduled Friday) across mobile devices, desktops, digital signage, social media, email, and the emergency website. Area outdoor warning sirens are typically tested at noon on the first Tuesday of each month during clear weather.
- Scope & limits
- Students and employees are automatically enrolled; families and friends may opt in by texting MAROONALERT to 888777. Text messages are sent only for testing or in cases of imminent danger.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallPush NotificationTwitter XFacebookWebsiteSirenDigital SignageDesktop Popup
Analysis
Reading the policy
Mississippi State University's Maroon Alert is a multi-modal emergency notification platform built on Everbridge, which the university adopted as its provider to add app-based push, desktop notifications, and digital-signage delivery to the prior text/email/voice mix. The university describes the system as one that 'uses texts, emails, phone calls, and more to inform the university community of imminent or existing dangers.' If a recipient has installed the Everbridge app, the first notification usually appears there; recipients without the app receive an SMS text instead.
The delivery surface is broad. Official material lists the Maroon Alert App (Everbridge), SMS text, university email, and phone calls as primary delivery methods, with alerts also posted to the Maroon Alert website, the @maroonalert X/Twitter account, and the Mississippi State University Facebook page. During an emergency, MSU webpages display a banner: a yellow banner indicates an emergency and a blue banner indicates an advisory, linking to the Emergency Management homepage. Outdoor warning sirens operated jointly by the City of Starkville and the university may sound for severe-weather or tornado warnings.
MSU runs a visible, recurring test program. Routine tests are announced in advance (for example, scheduled for noon on a Friday) and exercise notifications to mobile devices, university desktops, campus digital signage, social media, university email accounts, and the emergency website; separate tests have been run against campus monitors and screens, and against the Alertus desktop/signage component. Outdoor sirens in the area are generally tested at noon on the first Tuesday of each month during clear weather. The publicly reproduced material emphasizes that, outside of testing, text messages are sent only in cases of imminent danger. The named operational owner is the university's Office of Emergency Management (Emergency Manager Brent Crocker); the reproduced material does not publish a single named alert-activation authority or a numeric minutes-based timeliness standard, so those are left unstated rather than invented.
Takeaways
Key findings
Maroon Alert is an Everbridge-powered emergency notification system; for app users the first notification usually appears in the Everbridge app, with SMS as the fallback.
Primary delivery methods are the Everbridge app, SMS text, university email, and phone calls, with posts to the Maroon Alert website, X/Twitter, and Facebook.
Web banners differentiate severity: yellow indicates an emergency and blue indicates an advisory.
Students and employees are auto-enrolled; families and friends opt in by texting MAROONALERT to 888777, and text messages are sent only for testing or imminent danger.
MSU runs announced routine tests across mobile, desktop, signage, social, email, and web; area outdoor sirens are tested at noon on the first Tuesday of each month.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
7 documented times MSU’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- OfficialMaroon Alert Frequently Asked Questions — MSU Emergency Informationemergency.msstate.eduarchived copy
- Official
- Official
- Social
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warning
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion