W&L
2025 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report - Timely Warning and Emergency Notifications
Washington and Lee University's 2025 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report issues Timely Warning Notifications, also known as Campus-Wide Alerts, for crimes and other emergencies in or near campus that represent a serious and continuing threat, and sends emergency notifications without delay. The General Alerts page automatically emails university-supplied student, faculty, and staff accounts.
Read the official policyGeneral Alerts
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
General Alerts consumer definitionverbatim
General Alerts is a notification system that allows Washington and Lee to notify community members of emergencies or other timely information that affects the campus.
- Consumer product covers emergencies or other timely campus information.
Automatic university email enrollmentverbatim
All university-supplied email accounts for students, faculty and staff will automatically receive General Alerts.
- University email is auto-enrolled; mobile text is registered separately.
Campus-Wide Alerts timely warningverbatim
Public Safety will provide Timely Warning Notifications, also known as Campus-Wide Alerts, to the University community in cases of crimes and other emergency situations that occur in or near the W&L campus, are reported to either Public Safety or local law enforcement, and are considered to represent a serious and continuing threat to students, faculty, and staff members or their property.
- In or near campus, and threats to property as well as persons.
Without-delay emergency notificationverbatim
Washington and Lee University will, without delay and taking in account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification and initiate the notification system unless using the notification system will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.
- Live wording is taking in account, not taking into account.
At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- Campus-Wide Alerts for crimes and other emergency situations in or near campus that represent a serious and continuing threat. Emergency notification for a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and guests.
- Who decides
- Emergency notifications authorized by the Chief Public Safety Officer in consultation with the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Vice President of Communications and Strategic Initiatives.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notification without delay unless using the notification system would compromise victim assistance or mitigation. Timely warnings as soon as pertinent information is available.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- If an emergency notification is made, the University does not need to also issue a timely warning about the same incident or situation. Timely Warning Notifications are also known as Campus-Wide Alerts.
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Analysis
Reading the policy
Washington and Lee University (private-liberal-arts, Virginia, five filed cases, no prior policy file) publishes a live 2025 ASR PDF (HTTP 200 via the Clery Act employment page) plus a live General Alerts consumer page (HTTP 200, Omnilert). Live ASR wording is without delay and taking in account the safety of the community. If an emergency notification is made, the University does not also issue a timely warning about the same incident. Emergency notifications are authorized by the Chief Public Safety Officer in consultation with the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Vice President of Communications and Strategic Initiatives. Every excerpt was character-checked against the live PDF or HTML.
Takeaways
Key findings
General Alerts is the consumer product; university emails auto-receive it.
Campus-Wide Alerts are the timely-warning product for a serious and continuing threat in or near campus.
An emergency notification means W&L does not also issue a timely warning for the same incident.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
5 documented times W&L’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Clery ASR
- Official
Tags
policyclery-asremergency-notificationtimely-warningvirginiaprivate-liberal-artsomnilert
Added 2026-09-14Updated 2026-09-14Via ingestion