Rhodes
Critical Safety Communications and Rhodes Alert System
Rhodes College's Campus Safety page uses a mass communication system (Rhodes Alert / Blackboard Connect) that emails, texts, and calls students, faculty, and staff in an emergency, including delays, closures, and a present or continuing threat. The Critical Safety Communications handbook page keeps emergency notifications, timely warnings, and campus safety alerts as three distinct products.
Read the official policyRhodes Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Rhodes Alert mass communicationverbatim
The college utilizes a mass communication system capable of emailing, texting, and calling all students, faculty, and staff in an emergency.
- Email, text, and phone.
Weather and continuing-threat usesverbatim
This system is used to communicate delays and closures due to inclement weather and power outages and to alert the campus community if there is a present or continuing threat.
- Weather and power sit alongside a present or continuing threat.
Blackboard Connect textsverbatim
Rhodes Alerts sent by text utilize Blackboard Connect.
- Named vendor for text.
Emergency notification definitionverbatim
A notification required by the Clery Act that is issued immediately upon confirmation of a significant and immediate emergency or dangerous situation occurring on or near campus that poses an immediate threat to the health or safety of members of the campus community.
- On or near campus. Immediately upon confirmation.
Timely warning definitionverbatim
An advisory required by the Clery Act that is issued about a Clery Act crime occurring within a Clery reportable location and representing a serious or continuing threat to members of the campus community.
- Clery geography. Serious or continuing threat.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Rhodes Alert for emergencies, weather delays and closures, power outages, and a present or continuing threat. Emergency notification immediately upon confirmation of a significant and immediate emergency on or near campus. Timely warning for a Clery Act crime in Clery geography that represents a serious or continuing threat.
- Who decides
- Not named in the quoted sentences.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notification issued immediately upon confirmation. Timely warning as soon as pertinent information becomes available (Clery Act table on the college Clery page).
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Three products: Emergency Notifications, Timely Warnings, and Campus Safety Alerts. Rhodes Alerts sent by text use Blackboard Connect.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallSirenPa SystemWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
Rhodes College (private-liberal-arts, Tennessee, four filed cases, no prior policy file) publishes a live Campus Safety page (HTTP 200) and a live handbook Critical Safety Communications page (HTTP 200). Emergency notifications go out immediately upon confirmation of a significant and immediate emergency on or near campus. Timely warnings are Clery-crime advisories for a serious or continuing threat, generally by email. A heading-adjacent NBSP on the handbook page is not quoted. Every excerpt was character-checked against the live HTML.
Takeaways
Key findings
Rhodes Alert emails, texts, and calls the campus in an emergency, including weather and a present or continuing threat.
Text alerts use Blackboard Connect.
The handbook keeps emergency notifications distinct from timely warnings.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
2 documented times Rhodes’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
Tags
policysystem-overviewemergency-notificationtimely-warningtennesseeprivate-liberal-arts
Added 2026-09-14Updated 2026-09-14Via ingestion