UC Davis
UC Davis WarnMe and Aggie Alert
WarnMe and Aggie Alert are UC Davis's paired emergency-notification systems, run on the Everbridge platform and used to give faculty, staff, students and other subscribers timely information and instructions during emergencies or other urgent situations affecting their well-being. WarnMe carries immediate-threat-to-life-and-safety messages while Aggie Alert carries lower-urgency disruption notices, both reaching the community by email, text message, the Everbridge Mobile App, and the university's official Twitter/X and Facebook accounts.
Read the official policyInstitution
University of California, Davis
Public R1 · CA
~39,679 studentsWarnMe / Aggie Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Purpose of WarnMe and Aggie Alertverbatim
UC Davis WarnMe and Aggie Alert provides faculty, staff, students and other subscribers with timely information and instructions during emergencies or other urgent situations that may directly affect their well-being.
- — States the system's purpose; reproduced identically across the UC Davis FAQ and the campus emergency-information page.
WarnMe vs. Aggie Alert tieringverbatim
WarnMe messages provide information and directions regarding emergencies that pose an immediate threat to life and safety. Aggie Alert messages, sent using the same system and contact information, provide notification about events on and around Davis campus facilities that may cause disruption to normal activities.
- — Defines the two-tier split: WarnMe for immediate threats to life and safety, Aggie Alert for disruptive but non-life-threatening events.
Delivery channelsverbatim
The system sends messages to the university community by email, text message, and the Everbridge Mobile App.
- — Lists the three primary delivery channels run on the Everbridge platform.
Automatic social-media postingverbatim
It also posts life-safety messages automatically to the main UC Davis Twitter account and UC Davis Facebook page.
- — Documents automatic cross-posting of life-safety messages to the university's official Twitter/X and Facebook accounts.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- WarnMe carries emergencies that pose an immediate threat to life and safety (Clery-style emergency notifications and timely warnings issued via the UC Davis Police Department); Aggie Alert carries lower-urgency notifications about events on and around Davis campus facilities that may cause disruption to normal activities. Both aim to give the community timely information and instructions during emergencies or other urgent situations that may directly affect their well-being.
- Who decides
- The UC Davis Police Department, together with campus emergency-management staff, issues WarnMe emergency/timely-warning messages as part of the campus's Clery Act program. The precise activation roles are set by internal emergency-management procedures (no single public criteria page enumerates them), so this is paraphrased rather than quoted.
- Timeliness standard
- WarnMe is intended for immediate-threat-to-life-and-safety situations, consistent with the Clery Act's requirement to notify the community upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation. UC Davis does not publish a precise numeric timing standard on its public WarnMe/FAQ pages, so the standard is described in general terms.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- WarnMe is UC Davis's immediate-threat emergency-notification tier and the system the UC Davis Police Department uses to issue timely warnings and emergency alerts under the Clery Act. Aggie Alert, on the same platform, is the lower-urgency operational-disruption tier and falls outside the immediate-threat emergency-notification category.
- Testing cadence
- UC Davis tests the WarnMe / Aggie Alert system three times during the academic year — typically around October, January and April, usually at noon on a Wednesday — delivering email and text messages to the automatically enrolled community; some October tests have included a campus earthquake drill.
- Scope & limits
- WarnMe / Aggie Alert reaches subscribers with a ucdavis.edu email automatically and others who opt in by texting UCDALERTS to 888777 or by installing the Everbridge Mobile App. A documented limit: WarnMe does not send text messages to international phone numbers, so the Everbridge app is the recommended option for those users. WarnMe is reserved for immediate-threat life-safety messages; routine disruptions go out as Aggie Alert.
ChannelsSmsEmailPush NotificationTwitter XFacebook
Analysis
Reading the policy
UC Davis describes WarnMe and Aggie Alert as providing 'faculty, staff, students and other subscribers with timely information and instructions during emergencies or other urgent situations that may directly affect their well-being.' The two services run on the same Everbridge contact data but are deliberately tiered by urgency: 'WarnMe messages provide information and directions regarding emergencies that pose an immediate threat to life and safety,' whereas 'Aggie Alert messages, sent using the same system and contact information, provide notification about events on and around Davis campus facilities that may cause disruption to normal activities.' That split lets the university reserve the highest-attention channel for genuine life-safety events.
**When and how it activates:** WarnMe is the engine for Clery-style emergency notifications — immediate threats to life and safety such as an active threat, hazardous spill, or other dangerous situation — issued through the UC Davis Police Department and emergency-management staff as part of the campus's Clery Act obligations. **Channels** are broad: 'The system sends messages to the university community by email, text message, and the Everbridge Mobile App,' and 'it also posts life-safety messages automatically to the main UC Davis Twitter account and UC Davis Facebook page.' Everyone with a ucdavis.edu email address is enrolled automatically; parents, vendors and others without a campus email can opt in by texting UCDALERTS to 888777, and the Everbridge app is offered specifically for international phone numbers because WarnMe does not send texts internationally.
**Clery framing and scope:** WarnMe is the immediate-threat / emergency-notification tier and the channel through which UC Davis Police issue timely warnings and emergency alerts under the Clery Act, while Aggie Alert handles operational-disruption messaging that falls below the immediate-threat bar — a clear scope boundary that keeps the urgent tier uncluttered. **Testing:** UC Davis tests the WarnMe / Aggie Alert system three times each academic year — typically around October, January and April, at noon on a Wednesday — sending email and text messages to the automatically enrolled community; some tests have been paired with a 'Drop, Cover and Hold On' earthquake drill. Exact decision-authority and first-responder delay language are governed by the campus's internal emergency-management procedures rather than a single public criteria page, so those specifics are paraphrased here rather than quoted.
Takeaways
Key findings
WarnMe and Aggie Alert are UC Davis's paired Everbridge-based notification services sharing one contact database, tiered by urgency.
WarnMe carries immediate-threat-to-life-and-safety messages (Clery emergency notifications and timely warnings via the UC Davis Police Department); Aggie Alert carries lower-urgency disruption notices.
Channels include email, text message, the Everbridge Mobile App, and automatic posting of life-safety messages to the official UC Davis Twitter/X and Facebook accounts.
Anyone with a ucdavis.edu email is enrolled automatically; others can opt in by texting UCDALERTS to 888777, and the Everbridge app is the recommended path for international numbers because WarnMe does not text internationally.
UC Davis tests the system three times per academic year (roughly October, January and April), usually at noon on a Wednesday, by email and text.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
6 documented times UC Davis’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
- OfficialWarnMe Test on Jan. 29 To Introduce New Feature | Safety Servicessafetyservices.ucdavis.eduarchived copy
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningwarnmeaggie-alerteverbridgeclerycalifornia
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion