UofL
Pol - Jeanne Clery Campus Safety (Clery Act)
Under the University of Louisville's Jeanne Clery Campus Safety policy, University Police and/or Communications and Marketing will immediately notify the campus community upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat, using the Rave system. The same offices issue Clery Timely Warnings when a reported incident poses a serious or ongoing threat.
Read the official policyInstitution
University of Louisville
Public R1 · KY
~23,270 studentsUofL Alerts (Rave)
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Emergency notification dutyverbatim
The University Police and/or Communications and Marketing will immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on campus, utilizing the Rave system.
- — Names the dual decision authority (University Police and/or Communications and Marketing) and the Rave platform; uses Clery 'immediately notify' / 'immediate threat' language.
Timely warning dutyverbatim
The University Police and/or Communications and Marketing will timely alert the campus community when a reported incident poses a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community. The timely warnings will be made in a manner that aids in the prevention of similar crimes.
- — Distinguishes the timely-warning track from emergency notification; ties warnings to crime prevention purpose.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- An emergency notification is issued upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on campus. Triggering situations include a shooter or violent crime, bomb, terrorist act, chemical hazard, or gas leak, plus weather emergencies (e.g., tornadoes) and university closings/class delays. A timely warning is issued when a reported incident poses a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community.
- Who decides
- University Police and/or Communications and Marketing.
- Timeliness standard
- University Police and/or Communications and Marketing will 'immediately notify' the campus community upon confirmation of an immediate threat; the timely-warning track uses 'timely alert' language. No numeric minutes-based standard is published in the reproduced material.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- Two distinct Clery tracks: immediate emergency notifications for confirmed immediate threats, and timely warnings for incidents posing a serious or ongoing threat, made to aid prevention of similar crimes.
- Testing cadence
- Not stated in the reproduced material.
- Scope & limits
- Community members manage delivery preferences (text, voice, email) via the Rave portal using UofL credentials and may register multiple contact methods/devices. Alerts are also posted to UofL's official social media accounts.
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Analysis
Reading the policy
The University of Louisville codifies its alerting obligations in a standalone policy, Pol - Jeanne Clery Campus Safety (Clery Act), which separates the Clery Act's two notification duties. For emergency notifications, the policy states that University Police and/or Communications and Marketing will immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on campus, utilizing the Rave system. For timely warnings, the same offices will timely alert the campus community when a reported incident poses a serious or ongoing threat, with warnings made in a manner that aids in the prevention of similar crimes.
The alerting platform is Rave Mobile Safety, branded publicly as UofL Alerts (historically referenced as ULert). Community members manage their contact methods through the Rave portal using their UofL credentials, choosing among text, voice, and email and adding multiple phone numbers or addresses to receive alerts on more than one device. When an alert is sent, it goes out by text, email, and voice call and is posted to UofL's official social media accounts.
The university describes the kinds of situations that trigger an alert: a shooter or violent crime on campus, a bomb, a terrorist act, a chemical hazard, or a gas leak, as well as weather emergencies such as tornadoes and operational situations such as university closings and class delays. The decision authority is explicitly shared between University Police and Communications and Marketing. The reproduced policy language uses the Clery 'immediate' and 'without delay' framing rather than a numeric minutes standard; the specific policy number, effective date, and a published testing cadence are not reproduced in the available material, so those fields are left unstated rather than invented.
Takeaways
Key findings
UofL's standalone Jeanne Clery Campus Safety policy assigns alerting authority jointly to University Police and/or Communications and Marketing.
Emergency notifications go out 'immediately' upon confirmation of an immediate threat, using the Rave system.
Timely warnings are issued for incidents posing a serious or ongoing threat, in a manner that aids prevention of similar crimes.
The platform is Rave Mobile Safety, branded UofL Alerts (historically ULert); members opt into text, voice, and email via the Rave portal and may register multiple devices.
Triggering events include shooter/violent crime, bomb, terrorist act, chemical hazard, gas leak, severe weather (e.g., tornadoes), and university closings/class delays; alerts also post to official social media.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
2 documented times UofL’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warning
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion