UofM
UofM Alert Emergency Notification and Timely Warning Procedures
The University of Memphis issues emergency notifications through UofM Alert, powered by Everbridge, a multi-channel mass-notification system that can reach thousands of community members in seconds, and runs the program through the Office of Crisis Management with University Police Services issuing Clery emergency notifications and timely warnings.
Read the official policyInstitution
University of Memphis
Public R1 · TN
~22,000 studentsUofM Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
UofM Alert / Everbridge reach statementverbatim
UofM Alert powered by Everbridge is used to make sure you know about issues that may affect your safety. This system allows the UofM to contact thousands of campus community members in seconds so you can find out about an emergency right away.
- — States the system brand (UofM Alert powered by Everbridge) and its speed claim of reaching thousands in seconds. Identical wording appeared across multiple retrievals of the official Everbridge page.
Multi-channel rationaleverbatim
In the event of an emergency, the University of Memphis has several means of notification in place. The University recognizes that no one method is effective for all students, faculty, staff and visitors.
- — Articulates the redundancy philosophy behind layering SMS, email, sirens, web, and the LiveSafe app. Identical wording appeared across multiple retrievals of official UofM safety pages.
Emergency-only scope limit on the text channelreconstructed
TigerText will never be used for non-emergency notifications.
- — A self-imposed scope limit restricting the emergency text service (originally branded TigerText, now consolidated under UofM Alert / Everbridge) to genuine emergencies. Surfaced via the search index rather than a confirmed live fetch (memphis.edu returned HTTP 403), so marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- UofM Alert / Everbridge is reserved for emergencies that may affect the safety of the campus community; the text service is explicitly never used for non-emergency notifications. Emergency notifications are issued for significant emergencies or dangerous situations posing an immediate threat to health or safety; timely-warning crime alerts are issued for Clery-reportable crimes representing a serious or continuing threat.
- Who decides
- The UofM Office of Crisis Management administers the emergency-notification program (historically with oversight from the Vice President for Business and Finance), and University Police Services issues Clery emergency notifications and timely warnings. The specific position authorized to confirm and trigger a UofM Alert was not confirmed verbatim (memphis.edu and the ASR PDF blocked automated fetching).
- Timeliness standard
- UofM emphasizes speed — the Everbridge system can 'contact thousands of campus community members in seconds' — consistent with the federal Clery standard of issuing emergency notifications without delay upon confirmation. The exact internal timing language from the ASR was not confirmable verbatim in this environment.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- UofM separates Clery emergency notifications (immediate threats to health/safety) from timely-warning crime alerts (serious or continuing crime threats), both handled by University Police Services and documented in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
- Testing cadence
- The Crisis Management Team meets regularly and conducts drills, and the university periodically tests its notification systems. The exact published periodic test cadence for UofM Alert was not confirmed verbatim in this review.
- Scope & limits
- UofM states that no single method reaches everyone, so it layers Everbridge text/voice, email to all memphis.edu accounts, outdoor sirens, web pages, and the LiveSafe app; email reaches anyone with a memphis.edu account, while full text/voice reach depends on current contact information in Everbridge. The emergency text channel is restricted to genuine emergencies only.
ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallSirenWebsitePush Notification
Analysis
Reading the policy
The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public R1 university in Memphis, Tennessee. Its current emergency mass-notification system is UofM Alert, powered by Everbridge; the university migrated to the Everbridge platform on June 15, 2023. UofM describes the system as one that 'is used to make sure you know about issues that may affect your safety' and that 'allows the UofM to contact thousands of campus community members in seconds so you can find out about an emergency right away.'
UofM's emergency text-messaging program was originally launched and marketed under the name TigerText, administered through the UofM Office of Crisis Management with oversight from the Vice President for Business and Finance; the platform has since been consolidated under the UofM Alert / Everbridge brand. UofM states explicitly that the emergency text service 'will never be used for non-emergency notifications,' a self-imposed scope limit intended to protect the credibility and attention-value of the channel.
UofM is deliberately multi-channel and says so directly: 'In the event of an emergency, the University of Memphis has several means of notification in place. The University recognizes that no one method is effective for all students, faculty, staff and visitors.' The channel mix includes UofM Alert text/voice via Everbridge, email alerts to every memphis.edu account, outdoor emergency warning sirens, university web pages, and the LiveSafe smartphone app for two-way communication with police, alerts, and a SafeWalk virtual-escort feature. The Crisis Management Team maintains the broader emergency-management plan, meets regularly, and conducts drills.
UofM keeps the Clery functions distinct between emergency notifications (immediate threats to health or safety, issued without delay upon confirmation) and timely-warning crime alerts (for Clery-reportable crimes representing a serious or continuing threat), both handled through University Police Services and documented in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. Because memphis.edu hosts and the ASR PDF return HTTP 403 to automated fetching here, the exact confirmation-and-timing wording in the ASR and the named position with final trigger authority were not byte-for-byte confirmable; two short excerpts (the Everbridge reach statement and the multi-channel rationale) appeared with identical wording across multiple official-page retrievals and are marked verbatim-confirmed.
Takeaways
Key findings
UofM's current emergency-notification system is UofM Alert, powered by Everbridge (migrated June 15, 2023), able to contact thousands of community members in seconds.
The text service was originally launched as TigerText, administered by the Office of Crisis Management; it is consolidated under the UofM Alert / Everbridge brand.
UofM is intentionally multi-channel — Everbridge SMS/voice, email to all memphis.edu accounts, outdoor sirens, web pages, and the LiveSafe app (with SafeWalk).
The emergency text channel is explicitly restricted to emergencies and 'will never be used for non-emergency notifications.'
Clery emergency notifications and timely warnings run through University Police Services; the named trigger authority and exact ASR timing language were not confirmable verbatim because memphis.edu and the ASR PDF blocked automated fetching.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
3 documented times UofM’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningpublic-r1tennesseeuofm-alerteverbridgetigertextmulti-channel
Added 2026-06-22Updated 2026-06-22Via ingestion