UT Austin
Emergency Notification Policy (Appendix A) / Emergency Communications — Longhorn Alert
Longhorn Alert is The University of Texas at Austin's official emergency notification system, used to push warnings to current students, faculty, and staff via text, email, and the LiveSafe app, with outdoor sirens activated directly by UTPD for life-safety emergencies. Per the university's Emergency Communications guidance, "an emergency notification is a notification of any confirmed, significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus involving an immediate and credible threat to the health or safety of students or employees," while the authority for the underlying Emergency Notification Policy rests with the vice president for student affairs.
Read the official policyInstitution
The University of Texas at Austin
Public R1 · TX
~53,082 studentsLonghorn Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Emergency-notification definitionverbatim
An emergency notification is a notification of any confirmed, significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus involving an immediate and credible threat to the health or safety of students or employees.
- — Tracks the Clery emergency-notification standard, with UT Austin's gloss of an 'immediate and credible' threat to health or safety.
Channels for emergency notificationsverbatim
Emergency Notifications are issued broadly and may be received via text, email, and the LiveSafe app.
- — Names the LiveSafe app alongside text and email; alerts are also posted to UTPD social media and the Longhorn Alert website.
Outdoor siren activation by UTPDverbatim
The outdoor siren system is activated directly by UTPD in extremely urgent situations where immediate action is required.
- — The siren is the one channel UTPD fires directly, bypassing the usual administration-developed message path.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- An emergency notification is a notification of any confirmed, significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus involving an immediate and credible threat to the health or safety of students or employees. Representative triggers include active shooter, bomb threat, weather/ice/snow emergency, building fire, hazmat release, health emergency (pandemic), utility disruption of 10+ buildings, hostage incident, and civil disturbance or riot.
- Who decides
- The Office of Emergency Management and UTPD typically deliver emergency information to administration, which develops the messages and activates campus-wide communications. Responsibility for the Emergency Notification Policy rests with the vice president for student affairs; emergency protocols are managed by the associate vice president for University operations. The outdoor siren system is activated directly by UTPD in extremely urgent situations where immediate action is required.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notifications are issued broadly to provide critical, time-sensitive information to help students, faculty, and staff take protective action; in extremely urgent situations requiring immediate action, UTPD activates the outdoor sirens directly.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- An Emergency Notification (confirmed significant emergency / immediate and credible threat) is distinct from a Timely Warning, which provides relevant information about certain crimes that have already occurred and represent an ongoing threat, issued as soon as pertinent information is available following a qualifying Clery crime.
- Testing cadence
- Outdoor sirens are tested around 11:50 a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month for about one minute. The broader emergency-communications process is tested monthly, with each test including a campus-wide email containing emergency communication, response, evacuation, and shelter resources.
- Scope & limits
- The Longhorn Alert text-messaging system is available only for current university students, faculty, and staff; individuals who do not meet these criteria are not eligible. Outdoor sirens indicate it is unsafe to be outdoors and to seek immediate shelter (most likely severe weather; possibly an environmental hazard or armed individual).
ChannelsSmsEmailPush NotificationSirenTwitter XFacebookWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
Longhorn Alert is The University of Texas at Austin's branded mass-notification system. Per the university's Emergency Communications page, the trigger adopts the Clery emergency-notification standard: "an emergency notification is a notification of any confirmed, significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus involving an immediate and credible threat to the health or safety of students or employees." The university enumerates representative triggering incidents — active shooter, bomb threat, weather emergency, ice/snow emergency, building fire, hazmat release, health emergency (pandemic), utility disruption of 10-plus buildings, hostage incident, and civil disturbance or riot — and notes these may include Clery Act crimes.
Decision authority is layered. The Office of Emergency Management and UTPD typically deliver emergency information to university administration, which then develops the messages and activates campus-wide communications; the Appendix A Emergency Notification Policy states that the authoritative source of the policy and responsibility for its implementation rests with the vice president for student affairs, with university emergency protocols managed by the associate vice president for University operations. The one documented exception is the outdoor siren system, which is activated directly by UTPD in extremely urgent situations where immediate action is required — sirens signal that it is unsafe to be outdoors (most often severe weather, but possibly an environmental hazard or armed individual) and that recipients should seek immediate shelter.
Delivery is multi-channel: emergency notifications are issued broadly and may be received via text, email, and the LiveSafe app, and are also posted to UTPD social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and X at @UTAustinPolice) and the Longhorn Alert website. The text-messaging service is restricted in scope — available only to current university students, faculty, and staff; individuals who do not meet that criterion are not eligible.
In Clery framing, UT Austin distinguishes the broadly-issued Emergency Notification (confirmed significant emergency / immediate threat) from a Timely Warning, which provides relevant information about certain crimes that have already occurred and represent an ongoing threat, issued as soon as pertinent information is available following a qualifying crime (criminal homicide, sexual offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, stalking, domestic violence, dating violence, or hate crimes). On testing cadence, the outdoor sirens are tested around 11:50 a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month for about one minute, and the broader emergency-communications process is exercised monthly, including a campus-wide email containing emergency communication, response, evacuation, and shelter resources.
Takeaways
Key findings
Longhorn Alert is UT Austin's branded emergency notification system, delivering alerts via text, email, and the LiveSafe app, plus UTPD social media and the Longhorn Alert website.
The trigger is a confirmed, significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate and credible threat to the health or safety of students or employees — adopting the Clery emergency-notification standard.
OEM and UTPD feed information to administration, which develops and sends messages; policy authority rests with the vice president for student affairs and protocols are managed by the associate vice president for University operations.
The outdoor siren system is activated directly by UTPD in extremely urgent life-safety situations and signals to seek immediate shelter.
Outdoor sirens are tested around 11:50 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month; the broader emergency-communications process is tested monthly with a campus-wide email.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
15 documented times UT Austin’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
+ 7 more in the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- OfficialEmergency Communications | Security and Emergency Management — UT Austinemergencymanagement.utexas.eduarchived copy
- Official
- OfficialLonghorn Alert | Security and Emergency Management — UT Austinemergencymanagement.utexas.eduarchived copy
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warninglonghorn-alertlivesafesiren
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-06-21Via ingestion