Morehouse
Emergency Notification and Security Information Alert Policy (Annual Security and Fire Safety Report)
Morehouse College, the historically Black men's college in Atlanta, sends campus-wide emergency notifications through Blackboard Connect, with community members enrolling their contact numbers through the AlertAware sign-up in Banner Web. Its Clery timely warnings are branded 'Security Information Alerts' and issued case-by-case by the Morehouse College Police Department.
Read the official policyInstitution
Morehouse College
Hbcu · GA
~2,847 studentsBlackboard Connect (AlertAware sign-up)
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Blackboard Connect system / channelsverbatim
Blackboard Connect® is a web-based service that can provide up-to-date emergency information to the campus community via mass e-mail, SMS text, and voice mail.
- — Names the system of record and its three channels (email, SMS, voice mail). Appeared near-identically across 2+ independent retrievals of the ASR.
Security Information Alert (timely warning) decision standardverbatim
The issuing of a Security Information Alert is decided on a case-by-case basis in light of all the facts surrounding a crime, including factors such as the nature of the crime, the continuing danger to the campus community, and where it occurred.
- — Shows Morehouse's brand term for a Clery timely warning ('Security Information Alert') and its case-by-case standard. Consistent across multiple ASR years and 2+ retrievals.
Activation threshold (Blackboard Connect)reconstructed
used when there is a severe threat to the public safety and health of the entire campus
- — Captured as a sentence fragment from the indexed ASR, so marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false despite appearing in 2+ retrievals.
Emergency-notification routing (EMT)reconstructed
In the event of an emergency, notification between the EMT and the campus community (faculty, staff, and students) will be made via Blackboard Connect® or Campus Police.
- — Describes the Emergency Management Team routing path. Surfaced via the search index; marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false out of caution.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Blackboard Connect is used when there is a severe threat to the public safety and health of the entire campus. A Security Information Alert (timely warning) is decided on a case-by-case basis in light of the facts surrounding a crime, including its nature, the continuing danger, and where it occurred.
- Who decides
- The Morehouse College Police Department (MCPD) initiates timely warnings ('Security Information Alerts') and confirms whether an incident is a threat; the College's Emergency Management Team (EMT) and designated authorized officials route emergency notifications via Blackboard Connect or Campus Police. The precise named official authorized to trigger an emergency notification could not be confirmed verbatim (morehouse.edu hosts blocked automated fetching).
- Timeliness standard
- Morehouse's ASR frames timely warnings as issued case-by-case once facts are known; a literal Clery 'without delay / immediately upon confirmation' timing phrase could not be confirmed verbatim for Morehouse and is not asserted here.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Morehouse distinguishes emergency notifications (immediate, campus-wide severe threats, via Blackboard Connect/AlertAware) from Clery timely warnings, which it brands 'Security Information Alerts' and issues for crimes posing a continuing danger.
- Testing cadence
- Morehouse tests emergency response and evacuation procedures annually (per the ASR). Whether tests are announced or unannounced was not confirmed.
- Scope & limits
- The SMS/voice tier is effectively opt-in: students subscribe through Banner Web's 'Emergency Alert' option and may enter up to three phone numbers. Mass email reaches institutional addresses; updates are also posted to the website and the @MorehouseSafety account on X.
ChannelsEmailSmsPhone CallWebsiteTwitter X
Analysis
Reading the policy
Morehouse College documents its emergency-communications program in its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. The system of record is Blackboard Connect, described as 'a web-based service that can provide up-to-date emergency information to the campus community via mass e-mail, SMS text, and voice mail' and used 'when there is a severe threat to the public safety and health of the entire campus.' Notably, there is no 'Maroon Alert' brand at Morehouse — 'maroon' refers only to the school color — so the system is named by its vendor (Blackboard Connect) and its sign-up tool (AlertAware) rather than a single marketing label. The companion AlertAware mechanism lets students subscribe through MyPortal → Banner Web → 'Emergency Alert,' entering up to three phone numbers for calls and/or texts, which makes the SMS/voice tier effectively opt-in.
Morehouse keeps the two Clery duties distinct, using its own term for a timely warning: a 'Security Information Alert.' Per the ASR, 'the issuing of a Security Information Alert is decided on a case-by-case basis in light of all the facts surrounding a crime, including factors such as the nature of the crime, the continuing danger to the campus community, and where it occurred,' and the Morehouse College Police Department (MCPD) is responsible for initiating timely warnings. Emergency notifications are routed between the College's Emergency Management Team (EMT) and the community via Blackboard Connect or Campus Police, with MCPD responsible for confirming whether an incident is a genuine threat before the campus is notified.
Morehouse tests its emergency response and evacuation procedures annually, consistent with the Clery minimum. Beyond the electronic channels, the College posts updates to its website and operates a @MorehouseSafety presence on X. Because every official Morehouse host and the ASR PDFs returned HTTP 403 to automated fetching, the quotes below were captured from search-index reproductions of those documents; the two marked verbatim appeared near-identically across 2+ independent retrievals (and, for the Security Information Alert language, across multiple ASR years), while the activation-threshold fragment and the EMT routing line are marked reconstructed. The exact federal 'without delay / immediately upon confirmation' timing phrase could not be isolated for Morehouse and is therefore not asserted.
Takeaways
Key findings
Morehouse's emergency-notification system of record is Blackboard Connect (email, SMS, voice mail); there is no 'Maroon Alert' brand.
Community members opt in by adding up to three phone numbers via Banner Web's AlertAware 'Emergency Alert' option.
Clery timely warnings are branded 'Security Information Alerts' and issued case-by-case by the Morehouse College Police Department.
Emergency notifications are routed via the Emergency Management Team (EMT) and Campus Police; MCPD confirms whether an incident is a real threat.
Emergency response and evacuation procedures are tested annually. Official hosts blocked automated fetching, so confidence is medium and two excerpts are honestly marked reconstructed.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
8 documented times Morehouse’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Clery ASR
- Official
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warninghbcugeorgiablackboard-connectalertawaresecurity-information-alert
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion