SBC
Emergency Notifications and Timely Warnings (Annual Security and Fire Safety Report) / Emergency Action Guide
Sitting Bull College — the tribal college of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in Fort Yates, North Dakota — documents its emergency-notification and timely-warning procedures in its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report and reaches the campus through SBC Alert / MySBC Alert messages and a PA system, with the college's Emergency Action Guide building its active-threat response around the ALICE model administered by 24/7 SBC Campus Security.
Read the official policyInstitution
Sitting Bull College
Tribal College · ND
~300 studentsSBC Alert / MySBC Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Standing emergency action (check SBC Alert)verbatim
Check college email and SBC Alert for official message.
- — Establishes SBC Alert (alongside college email) as the official emergency-messaging channel. This wording appeared identically across multiple SBC-attributed retrievals of the Emergency Action Guide.
ALICE — initial Alert sourcesverbatim
Initial Alert may be gunshot, PA Announcement, MySBC Alert, etc.
- — From the 'A — Alert' step of SBC's adopted ALICE active-threat plan; names MySBC Alert and the PA system as alert sources. Wording corroborated across multiple SBC-attributed retrievals.
ASR Clery-section structure (reconstructed from index)reconstructed
Issuing Emergency Notifications ... TIMELY WARNINGS ... Timely Warnings Policy and Procedures ... Decision to Issue a Timely Warning
- — These are the named section headings in SBC's 2025 ASR that demonstrate distinct Clery emergency-notification and timely-warning procedures. Surfaced via the search index; sittingbull.edu returned HTTP 403 to automated fetching, so the surrounding policy prose could not be byte-for-byte confirmed. Marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false.
Emergency-notification sign-up (paraphrased from index)reconstructed
Students who wish to sign up can receive emergency notifications by email or phone.
- — Indicates SBC's notification reach is partly opt-in via email or phone. Drawn from indexed snippets of SBC material; the host returned HTTP 403 to automated fetching, so exact page wording could not be byte-for-byte confirmed. Marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false out of caution.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- SBC's ASR documents separate Clery functions: 'Issuing Emergency Notifications' for significant emergencies or dangerous situations and 'Timely Warnings' (with a 'Decision to Issue a Timely Warning' section) for Clery-reportable crimes representing a continuing threat; the college performs a functional assessment to decide which to issue. For active threats, the Emergency Action Guide applies the ALICE model, with the initial Alert potentially a gunshot, PA Announcement, or MySBC Alert. (Exact threshold wording not byte-for-byte confirmable — host returned HTTP 403; framing reconstructed from indexed snippets and the Clery standard.)
- Who decides
- SBC Campus Security (available 24/7/365), working with college administration and surrounding law-enforcement and emergency-response agencies, coordinates emergency notifications and timely warnings; 911 calls connect to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Police Department. The specific position authorized to confirm and trigger an SBC Alert was not confirmed verbatim in this review (sittingbull.edu blocked automated fetching).
- Timeliness standard
- Not confirmed verbatim in the sources reviewed; the college states it 'will respond to any emergency situation in a safe, effective, and timely manner,' and as a Clery-covered tribal college SBC is bound by the federal 'immediately, upon confirmation' emergency-notification standard and the 'timely' standard for warnings.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- SBC's Annual Security and Fire Safety Report keeps emergency notifications and timely warnings distinct, with named sections 'Issuing Emergency Notifications,' 'TIMELY WARNINGS,' 'Timely Warnings Policy and Procedures,' and 'Decision to Issue a Timely Warning.' The college conducts a functional assessment to determine which is needed and maintains cooperative relationships with surrounding law enforcement and emergency-response agencies.
- Testing cadence
- SBC runs shelter-in-place drills approximately twice per semester (often coordinated with lockdown drills at the co-located Standing Rock schools); a published periodic test cadence specifically for the SBC Alert messaging channel was not confirmed in this review (host blocked automated fetching).
- Scope & limits
- Emergency-notification reach is partly opt-in: students who wish to receive notifications sign up to be reached by email or phone, so coverage depends on enrollment and current contact information. The PA system and MySBC portal supplement messaging on the physical campus. SBC's rural Standing Rock Reservation footprint, spanning the ND–SD border, makes cellular and broadcast coverage gaps an inherent delivery limitation.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallPa SystemWebsitePush Notification
Analysis
Reading the policy
Sitting Bull College (SBC) is the federally chartered tribal college of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, headquartered in Fort Yates, North Dakota, along the North Dakota–South Dakota border. As a Clery-covered institution it publishes an Annual Security and Fire Safety Report; the 2025 report contains dedicated sections titled 'Issuing Emergency Notifications,' 'TIMELY WARNINGS,' 'Timely Warnings Policy and Procedures,' and 'Decision to Issue a Timely Warning,' so the college keeps the two federal Clery functions formally distinct, and it states it conducts a functional assessment to determine the need for either an Emergency Notification or a Timely Warning.
The campus alert channel is branded SBC Alert (also rendered as MySBC Alert, after the college's My SBC student/staff portal). The college's Emergency Action Guide instructs the community that the standing emergency action is to 'Check college email and SBC Alert for official message,' and the guide notes that drills and alerts are communicated via MySBC or the PA System. Students who wish to receive emergency notifications can sign up to be reached by email or phone, which makes SBC's reach partly opt-in rather than fully automatic — a coverage limitation typical of small tribal colleges.
SBC has built its active-threat response around the ALICE model: its Emergency Action Guide lays out Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate, and describes the initial Alert as something that 'may be gunshot, PA Announcement, MySBC Alert, etc.' The college runs shelter-in-place drills roughly twice a semester, often coordinated with lockdown drills at the co-located Standing Rock schools. Campus Security is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and emergencies and crimes in progress are reported by dialing 911, which connects to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Police Department; non-emergency campus reports go to SBC Security.
Because the official sittingbull.edu host and its ASR / Emergency Action Guide PDFs return HTTP 403 to automated fetching, the precise verbatim wording of the 'Issuing Emergency Notifications' threshold (e.g., the federal 'without delay, upon confirmation' standard), the named decision authority, and any published periodic test cadence for SBC Alert could not be byte-for-byte confirmed in this review. Those fields below are reconstructed from indexed snippets of the official documents and from the Clery framework, and are flagged honestly; the excerpts that appeared with identical wording across multiple SBC-attributed retrievals (the ALICE/SBC Alert action language) are marked verbatim-confirmed, while the rest are marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false. Confidence is set to medium.
Takeaways
Key findings
SBC reaches the campus through SBC Alert / MySBC Alert messages plus a PA system; the official emergency action is to 'Check college email and SBC Alert for official message.'
SBC's active-threat response is built on the ALICE model, with the initial Alert potentially a gunshot, PA Announcement, or MySBC Alert.
Its 2025 ASR keeps Clery functions distinct with sections for 'Issuing Emergency Notifications' and 'Timely Warnings,' deciding between them via a functional assessment.
Emergency-notification reach is partly opt-in (students sign up by email or phone); Campus Security operates 24/7/365 and 911 connects to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Police Department.
Exact threshold/timeliness wording, named decision authority, and a published SBC Alert test cadence could not be confirmed verbatim (sittingbull.edu and its ASR PDFs returned HTTP 403), so those fields are reconstructed and flagged; confidence is medium.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
1 documented time SBC’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Clery ASR
- Clery ASR
- Official
- Official
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningtribal-collegenorth-dakotastanding-rockalicesbc-alert
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion