UVA
IRM-013: Issuance of an Emergency Notification
UVA Alerts is the University of Virginia's mass notification system, governed by University policy IRM-013: Issuance of an Emergency Notification, which requires the University to issue an emergency notification without delay upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of the community on or near Grounds — distinct from a Safety Advisory (timely warning) under IRM-018 for Clery crimes posing a serious or ongoing threat.
Read the official policyInstitution
University of Virginia
Public R1 · VA
~26,000 studentsUVA Alerts
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Emergency notification obligation (IRM-013)verbatim
The University is required to inform the campus community about a significant emergency event or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of University faculty, staff, employees, students, patients, and visitors occurring on or near Grounds.
- — Recurred identically across independent searches of the UVA Policy site; states the immediate-threat-to-health/safety trigger and the on-or-near-Grounds scope. Direct fetch of the .edu policy page returned HTTP 403.
Without-delay issuance standardreconstructed
In the event an emergency or dangerous situation occurs on University Grounds or a separate campus which constitutes an immediate threat to or may directly affect the health or safety of the University community, the University will issue an emergency notification without delay, with certain exceptions noted in the policy.
- — Reconstructed from search-result paraphrase of IRM-013 (the .edu page 403-blocks direct fetch). Captures the "without delay" standard and the limited-exception clause; exact original wording not confirmed verbatim.
Authorized initiatorsreconstructed
Authorized University officials who can create message content and authorize alerts include the Associate Vice President for Safety and Security, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Director and Assistant Director of the Office of Emergency Management, Director of Medical Center Emergency Management, command staff personnel of the University Police Division, the UPD shift commander, or a UPD services clerk.
- — Reconstructed from search-result summary of IRM-013; names the roster of officials authorized to author and authorize UVA Alerts. Not confirmed word-for-word.
Safety Advisory (timely warning) criteriaverbatim
DSS will issue a Safety Advisory if the following criteria are met: 1) a Clery Act crime is reported; 2) the crime occurred in a Clery Reportable Location; 3) the perpetrator has not been apprehended; and 4) there is a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community because of this crime.
- — Returned identically across searches of IRM-018 and the SEC-035 Clery compliance materials; enumerates the four-part timely-warning test. Direct fetch 403-blocked.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Under IRM-013, the University will issue an emergency notification without delay upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation that constitutes an immediate threat to, or may directly affect, the health or safety of the University community on University Grounds, a separate campus, or near Grounds (e.g., active threat, severe weather/tornado, hazardous conditions). A limited exception applies where issuing the notification would compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. Safety Advisories (timely warnings) under IRM-018 are issued for reported Clery Act crimes in a Clery Reportable Location where the perpetrator has not been apprehended and a serious or ongoing threat exists.
- Who decides
- Authorized officials who can create message content and authorize emergency notifications include the Associate Vice President for Safety and Security, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, the Director and Assistant Director of the Office of Emergency Management, the Director of Medical Center Emergency Management, command staff of the University Police Division, the UPD shift commander, or a UPD services clerk (for natural-forces emergencies). Safety Advisories are issued by the Associate Vice President for Safety & Security and Chief of Police and/or the Assistant Vice President for Clery Compliance (or their designees).
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notifications are issued "without delay" upon confirmation of the emergency, except in the limited circumstances where issuing the notification would compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. Safety Advisories (timely warnings) are issued as soon as pertinent information is available.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- UVA splits Clery obligations into two named policies: IRM-013 governs Emergency Notifications (immediate threat to health/safety) and IRM-018 governs Safety Advisories / Timely Warnings (Clery crimes posing a serious or ongoing threat), both under the SEC-035 Clery Act Compliance umbrella and expressly tied to 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f).
- Testing cadence
- UVA tests the emergency notification system three times each year: in the early weeks of the fall and spring semesters and during Summer Session II. A test deploys a clearly labeled TEST ALERT to all endpoints and concludes about 10 minutes later with an "all clear" message.
- Scope & limits
- UVA Alerts covers an imminent threat on University Grounds and/or proximate areas. Students, faculty, and staff with a UVA computing ID automatically receive email alerts; text messages go to those who registered a mobile number during orientation/onboarding, and push notifications require the UVA Ready app. The siren/PA system, Alertus desktop messaging, LED/LCD screens, and the UVA Health paging system are additional endpoints; an exception to immediate issuance applies where notification would compromise mitigation or victim-assistance efforts.
ChannelsSirenPa SystemSmsEmailDesktop PopupWebsitePush NotificationDigital SignagePhone Call
Analysis
Reading the policy
The University of Virginia separates its Clery obligations into two dedicated standalone policies: IRM-013: Issuance of an Emergency Notification for immediate threats and IRM-018: Issuance of a Safety Advisory (Timely Warning) for Clery crimes that present a serious or ongoing threat, both anchored to SEC-035: Clery Act Compliance. Under IRM-013, in the event an emergency or dangerous situation occurs on University Grounds or a separate campus which constitutes an immediate threat to or may directly affect the health or safety of the University community, the University will issue an emergency notification without delay (with limited exceptions where issuing the notification would compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency). The policy frames the University's obligation as immediately notifying the community upon confirmation of a significant emergency event or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of faculty, staff, employees, students, patients, and visitors occurring on or near Grounds — explicitly tying the procedure to the Jeanne Clery Act (20 U.S.C. § 1092(f)).
Decision authority is unusually well-specified. Authorized University officials who can create message content and authorize alerts include the Associate Vice President for Safety and Security, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, the Director and Assistant Director of the Office of Emergency Management, the Director of Medical Center Emergency Management, command staff personnel of the University Police Division, the UPD shift commander, or a UPD services clerk when they receive notice of a natural-forces emergency (such as a tornado) on the weather radio, computer, or other authoritative source. For Safety Advisories (timely warnings), the Department of Safety and Security issues a notice if four criteria are met: (1) a Clery Act crime is reported; (2) the crime occurred in a Clery Reportable Location; (3) the perpetrator has not been apprehended; and (4) there is a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community; the notice is issued by the Associate Vice President for Safety & Security and Chief of Police and/or the Assistant Vice President for Clery Compliance (or their designees) as soon as pertinent information is available.
When UVA Alerts is activated, the notification reaches the community through a deliberately layered set of channels: the siren/public-address system, text messaging, e-mail, LED and LCD screens, the UVA Health System paging system, Alertus desktop messaging, the UVA homepage, the UVA Emergency homepage, and push notifications via the UVA Ready safety app. Students, faculty, and staff with a UVA computing ID are automatically assigned an account and automatically receive alerts via email; a text message is also sent to those who registered a mobile number during orientation or onboarding. The system notifies of an imminent threat on University Grounds and/or proximate areas.
Testing is more frequent than the typical twice-a-year cadence: UVA tests the system three times each year — in the early weeks of the fall and spring semesters and during Summer Session II. A test begins by deploying a clearly labeled TEST ALERT to all endpoints and concludes roughly 10 minutes later with an "all clear" message. The combination of a confirmation-based "without delay" trigger, a named roster of authorized initiators, a redundant multi-channel delivery stack, and three annual tests reflects UVA's Clery-compliance posture as a large public R1 with an attached academic medical center.
Takeaways
Key findings
UVA governs emergency alerts through standalone policy IRM-013 (Emergency Notification) and a separate IRM-018 (Safety Advisory / Timely Warning), both under SEC-035 Clery Act Compliance and tied to 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f).
IRM-013 requires issuing an emergency notification "without delay" upon confirmation of an immediate threat to health or safety on or near Grounds, with a limited exception where notification would compromise mitigation or victim-assistance efforts.
A named roster of officials can authorize UVA Alerts — from the AVP for Safety and Security and the EVP/COO down to the UPD shift commander and a UPD services clerk for natural-forces emergencies.
UVA Alerts delivers through siren/PA, text, email, LED/LCD screens, the UVA Health paging system, Alertus desktop messaging, the UVA homepage/emergency homepage, and UVA Ready app push notifications; computing-ID holders auto-receive email alerts.
The system is tested three times a year — early fall, early spring, and Summer Session II — each test running a labeled TEST ALERT to all endpoints followed by an "all clear" about 10 minutes later.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
12 documented times UVA’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
+ 4 more in the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- OfficialIRM-018: Issuance of a Safety Advisory (Timely Warning) | UVA Policyuvapolicy.virginia.eduarchived copy
- Official
- Official
- OfficialUVA To Test Emergency Notification System | Emergency Managementuvaemergency.virginia.eduarchived copy
- Clery ASR
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningcleryvirginiapublic-r1
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion