Smith

Emergency Information / Emergency Mass Notification System

MAIssuance criteriaSmith College Emergency Mass Notification Systemhigh confidence

Smith College — a private women's liberal-arts college in Northampton, Massachusetts — runs an emergency mass notification system that alerts faculty, staff, and students via text, voice, and email when there is an immediate threat, supplemented by the recorded INFO line at 413-585-4636, and issues separate Clery timely warnings through its Department of Campus Safety.

Read the official policy

Institution

Smith College

Private Liberal Arts · MA

Smith College Emergency Mass Notification System

In the policy’s own words

What the policy says

Alert delivery to faculty, staff, and studentsverbatim

Smith College will alert faculty, staff and students of threats or emergencies via email, text and phone messages, circumstances permitting.

— Identifies the three core delivery channels and the honest qualifier 'circumstances permitting.' Identical wording appeared across multiple independent WebSearch retrievals of the official Emergency Information page.

Smith College — Emergency Information

Recorded INFO line fallbackverbatim

Notices will also be posted on the INFO line, 413-585-4636.

— A dial-in recorded line as a resilient low-tech fallback for anyone, including those not enrolled in the alert system. Identical wording appeared across two separate WebSearch retrievals of the official page.

Smith College — Emergency Information

Activation threshold (immediate threat)reconstructed

The college has an emergency mass notification system that is activated when there is an immediate threat to the campus community, with notifications sent via text message, voice message and email.

— States the 'immediate threat' activation threshold and the text/voice/email channel set. This is a close paraphrase surfaced via the search index (smith.edu returned HTTP 403), so marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false.

Smith College — Safety & Emergency Preparedness (host blocked automated fetch; text from search index)

At a glance

How this policy works

When it activates: The emergency mass notification system 'is activated when there is an immediate threat to the campus community.' Smith will alert faculty, staff, and students of threats or emergencies via email, text, and phone messages, circumstances permitting. Timely warnings are issued for Clery-reportable crimes that present a serious or continuing threat.
Who decides: Smith's Department of Campus Safety (formerly Campus Police), staffed by sworn officers 24/7, administers the emergency mass notification system and Clery reporting; the dispatch center is reachable at 413-585-2490. The specific named position authorized to trigger an alert was not confirmable verbatim (smith.edu blocked automated fetching).
Timeliness standard: Smith activates the system 'when there is an immediate threat to the campus community,' consistent with the Clery requirement to notify immediately upon confirmation of a significant emergency. The precise timely-warning timing language was not confirmed byte-for-byte in this review.
Emergency notification vs. timely warning: Smith maintains both Clery functions — emergency notifications for an immediate threat to the campus community and timely warnings for Clery-reportable crimes posing a serious or continuing threat — keeps a Clery Crime Log and Fire Log updated within two business days, and publishes an Annual Security Report prepared in accordance with the Jeanne Clery Act.
Testing cadence: Smith reports that full-scale tests of the emergency mass notification system are conducted and publicized at least annually.
Scope & limits: Reach for text and voice depends on accurate community contact information; the recorded INFO line (413-585-4636) provides an open fallback that anyone — including parents and visitors not enrolled in the alert system — can dial for the latest status.

ChannelsSmsPhone CallEmailWebsite

Analysis

Reading the policy

Smith College is a private women's liberal-arts college in Northampton, Massachusetts, and one of the Five College Consortium. Smith does not market a catchy brand name for its alerting platform; it refers plainly to an 'emergency mass notification system.' The college states that it 'will alert faculty, staff and students of threats or emergencies via email, text and phone messages, circumstances permitting,' and that the emergency mass notification system 'is activated when there is an immediate threat to the campus community,' with notifications sent via text message, voice message, and email. A notable supplementary channel is a recorded information line. Smith directs the community that 'notices will also be posted on the INFO line, 413-585-4636.' A dedicated phone line that anyone can dial for the latest status is a low-tech but resilient fallback — it works when a person's contact data is stale, when push channels are saturated, or for parents and visitors not enrolled in the alert system. The activation threshold is the broad Clery emergency-notification standard: an 'immediate threat to the campus community.' Smith's Department of Campus Safety (which the college has rebranded from Campus Police, and which staffs sworn officers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) administers the system; the dispatch center is reachable at 413-585-2490. Smith reports that full-scale tests of the system are conducted and publicized at least annually. Smith documents its Clery obligations through its crime and fire safety records and reports, maintaining a Clery Crime Log and a Fire Log updated within two business days of receiving a report and publishing an Annual Security Report prepared in accordance with the Jeanne Clery Act. Because smith.edu returned HTTP 403 to automated fetching in this environment, the excerpts below were captured from multiple independent WebSearch retrievals of the official pages; the 'will alert faculty, staff and students' sentence and the INFO-line instruction each appeared with identical wording across separate retrievals and are marked verbatim-confirmed, while the activation-threshold sentence (a close paraphrase across retrievals) is marked reconstructed.

Takeaways

Key findings

Smith runs an unbranded 'emergency mass notification system' that alerts faculty, staff, and students via text, voice, and email.

The system is activated when there is an immediate threat to the campus community — the broad Clery emergency-notification standard.

A recorded INFO line (413-585-4636) serves as a resilient dial-in fallback open to anyone, including people not enrolled in the alert system.

Smith's Department of Campus Safety (formerly Campus Police), staffed 24/7 by sworn officers, administers the system; full-scale tests are conducted and publicized at least annually.

Smith keeps a Clery Crime Log and Fire Log updated within two business days and publishes an Annual Security Report under the Jeanne Clery Act.

Two excerpts were confirmed verbatim across independent retrievals; the activation-threshold sentence is a close paraphrase marked reconstructed because smith.edu blocked automated fetching.

Policy, meet practice

When this system actually fired

2 documented times Smith’s alert system was used, from the case archive.

Provenance

Sources

Official
Smith College — Emergency Information
smith.edu
archived copy
Official
Smith College — Safety & Emergency Preparedness at Smith
smith.edu
archived copy
Official
Smith College — Campus Safety
smith.edu
archived copy
Clery ASR
Smith College — Crime and Fire Safety Records and Reports
smith.edu
archived copy