Campus Alert Archive

Aggregate Data

Archive Statistics

1,431 verbatim alerts · 6,027 alert messages · 1110 institutions · 1934–2026

Two patterns dominate this archive. First, roughly 34% of cases occur in the August–October return-to-campus window, a seasonal cluster driven by move-in incidents, opening-week events, and fall sports. Second, verbatim confirmation climbs sharply after 2018: among alerts dated 2018 and later, 27% are word-for-word confirmed as Twitter/X archive recovery and university alert-page indexing finally make exact transmitted text recoverable.

The charts below cover incident type, year, state, institution type, resolution, Clery category, and first-alert response time. The response histogram is the sharpest operational lens: federal expectation is “without delay,” and most well-documented incidents fall under 15 minutes, but the long tail past one hour reflects the failure modes Clery enforcement actions repeatedly cite.

About these numbers

This archive is a limited, AI-assembled sample of campus emergency alerts, not a complete or randomly drawn census. Every chart below describes what has been documented here so far, which is shaped by what sources are publicly findable and what has been added to date. Please read these as patterns within this archive, not as statistically representative measures of US campuses overall, and avoid drawing population-level conclusions from them. Spot something wrong or missing? You can help correct or expand it.

6,027
Alert messages
Verbatim1,431 · 24%
1,431 of 6,027 alert messages (24%) are verbatim-confirmed.
1,110
Institutions
56
States & Territories

50 states · 5 territories

60.2
Avg Response (min)

198 timed

2,705
Documented Cases

1934–2026

Geographic Coverage

Cases Across All 55 Jurisdictions

50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and 5 territories, every corner of American higher education.

How to read this: Tile shading shows the cases documented here per state, which tracks collection effort and findability, not per-capita risk or any state's true number of incidents.

Geographic Coverage

Coverage by State & Territory

56 states & territories documented · darker tile = more cases · tap any tile to filter

Cases:
None
1-9
10-29
30-59
60+
Documented cases per state/territory
State/TerritoryCases
CA238
TX178
NY131
PA120
FL111
NC106
VA98
MA96
OH90
GA82
IL72
LA71
TN64
MI63
SC56
DC53
IN52
CO51
MD50
WA47
MS46
AL45
NJ44
IA42
MO42
MN41
KY41
WI41
AZ35
CT35
OR31
NE25
ND25
HI24
OK24
UT22
WV21
KS21
RI20
NM20
VT20
ME20
ID19
MT19
PR19
AR18
NH18
SD15
AK15
WY15
NV13
DE13
GU9
VI9
MP7
AS2

Incident Breakdown

What Triggers Campus Alerts

Distribution across 40+ incident types: from active shooters to weather emergencies, gas leaks, and public-health crises.

How to read this: This is the mix of incidents we happen to have documented, not how often each type actually occurs on campuses.

Type Distribution

By Incident Type

top 10
  • shooting318
  • bomb threat281
  • hurricane171
  • civil unrest135
  • threat of violence118
  • other115
  • swatting114
  • armed person113
  • robbery87
  • police activity84
By Incident Type
InstitutionCases
shooting318
bomb threat281
hurricane171
civil unrest135
threat of violence118
other115
swatting114
armed person113
robbery87
police activity84

Year Trend

Cases by Year

2000–2026
3144716282005: 1220052006: 82007: 1420072008: 172009: 1720092010: 152011: 3220112012: 232013: 3520132014: 382015: 4820152016: 402017: 7520172018: 842019: 10820192020: 772021: 9220212022: 2252023: 27120232024: 6282025: 48320252026: 241
Cases by Year
LabelCount
200512
20068
200714
200817
200917
201015
201132
201223
201335
201438
201548
201640
201775
201884
2019108
202077
202192
2022225
2023271
2024628
2025483
2026241

Institution Lens

Who Files the Most Alerts

Institution type, Clery classification, and incident resolution: three views of the same archive from different regulatory angles.

How to read this: This reflects which institutions and categories are represented in the archive so far; it over-represents some types (such as large universities) and under-represents others.

Institution Type

By Institution Type

  • public r1823
  • private r1348
  • community college323
  • hbcu250
  • public masters243
  • public r2199
  • private liberal arts136
  • private r298
  • private masters92
  • public bachelors53
  • territory40
  • private bachelors28
  • technical college21
  • military18
  • tribal college17
  • for profit15
  • other1
By Institution Type
InstitutionCases
public r1823
private r1348
community college323
hbcu250
public masters243
public r2199
private liberal arts136
private r298
private masters92
public bachelors53
territory40
private bachelors28
technical college21
military18
tribal college17
for profit15
other1

Clery Classification

By Clery Category

8651,2981,730emergency notification: 1,730emergen…advisory: 616advisorytimely warning: 321timely …missing student: 26missing…test: 12test
By Clery Category
LabelCount
emergency notification1,730
advisory616
timely warning321
missing student26
test12

Outcome

By Resolution

8171,2261,634confirmed threat: 1,634confirm…unfounded: 282confirmed hoax: 275confirm…under investigation: 213unknown: 72unknownresolved: 47false alarm: 36false a…resolved safely: 17suspect apprehended: 10suspect…all clear: 9hoax: 7hoaxongoing investigation: 6suspect arrested: 4suspect…weather cleared: 4suspect in custody: 4suspect…resolved no threat: 4resolved with injuries: 4resolve…no threat found: 4no threat confirmed: 4no thre…all clear issued: 3
By Resolution
LabelCount
confirmed threat1,634
unfounded282
confirmed hoax275
under investigation213
unknown72
resolved47
false alarm36
resolved safely17
suspect apprehended10
all clear9
hoax7
ongoing investigation6
suspect arrested4
weather cleared4
suspect in custody4
resolved no threat4
resolved with injuries4
no threat found4
no threat confirmed4
all clear issued3

Leaders & Patterns

States & Institutions in Focus

Top states by documentation volume, and the 12 most-represented institutions in the archive.

How to read this: 'Top' and 'most' here mean most-documented in this archive, which tracks how findable and well-covered a place is as much as any real-world frequency.

State Volume

Top States by Case Count

top 15 of 56
  • CA238
  • TX178
  • NY131
  • PA120
  • FL111
  • NC106
  • VA98
  • MA96
  • OH90
  • GA82
  • IL72
  • LA71
  • TN64
  • MI63
  • SC56
Top States by Case Count
InstitutionCases
CA238
TX178
NY131
PA120
FL111
NC106
VA98
MA96
OH90
GA82
IL72
LA71
TN64
MI63
SC56

Institution Volume

Most-Represented Institutions

top 12 of 1,110
  • Howard · DC22
  • UW-Madison · WI19
  • Iowa · IA19
  • Cornell · NY18
  • OSU · OH16
  • Yale · CT16
  • IU · IN15
  • CU Boulder · CO15
  • UMD · MD14
  • MSU · MI14
  • UC Berkeley · CA14
  • Penn State · PA14
Most-Represented Institutions
InstitutionStateCases
HowardDC22
UW-MadisonWI19
IowaIA19
CornellNY18
OSUOH16
YaleCT16
IUIN15
CU BoulderCO15
UMDMD14
MSUMI14
UC BerkeleyCA14
Penn StatePA14

Operational Metrics

Speed of Response

How fast did the first alert arrive after an incident? The federal expectation is 'without delay.' See how the archive measures up.

How to read this: Based only on the subset of cases where a timing was documented, so it is not a representative measure of response times across the sector.

Response Speed

First-Alert Response Time

198 of 2,705 timed
<5 min: 41 cases (21%)5–15 min: 59 cases (30%)15–60 min: 75 cases (38%)>60 min: 23 cases (12%)21%under5 min
  • <5 min4121%
  • 5–15 min5930%
  • 15–60 min7538%
  • >60 min2312%
  • Unknown2,507

Federal expectation is “without delay.” Sub-5-min is exemplary; >60-min draws DOE scrutiny. Unknown = no documented incident-to-alert interval.

Long-Range View

Cases by Decade

1934–2026
1,0091,5132,0171930s: 11930s1940s: 11940s1950s: 11950s1960s: 131960s1970s: 151970s1980s: 121980s1990s: 401990s2000s: 1072000s2010s: 4982010s2020s: 2,0172020s
Cases by Decade
LabelCount
1930s1
1940s1
1950s1
1960s13
1970s15
1980s12
1990s40
2000s107
2010s498
2020s2,017

Exemplary Performance

The Fastest First Alerts

Institutions that issued the first alert within minutes of incident confirmation, the gold standard of campus emergency communication.

How to read this: These are the fastest intervals we have documented, limited by what each source reported. It is an illustration, not an audited ranking.

Fastest Documented First Alerts

incident → first alert
  1. 1.IU · tornado · 20260 min
  2. 2.USU · suspicious package · 20250 min
  3. 3.Riverland · threat of violence · 20250 min
  4. 4.Mizzou · shooting · 20250 min
  5. 5.Auburn · tornado · 20240 min
  6. 6.U-M · police activity · 20240 min
  7. 7.UF · shooting · 20240 min
  8. 8.TROY · police activity · 20240 min

Archive Authenticity

Verbatim Recovery Over Time

Each column is the total alert messages for that incident year, split into verbatim-confirmed (exact transmitted text) and reconstructed (paraphrased from secondary coverage).

How to read this: This tracks our own progress recovering exact alert wording; it is a measure of the archive itself, not a claim about campus alerts in general.

Authenticity Trend

Verbatim Recovery by Year

verbatimreconstructed
333667100013332011: 5 of 76 verbatim (7%)'112012: 11 of 67 verbatim (16%)'122013: 17 of 94 verbatim (18%)'132014: 8 of 91 verbatim (9%)'142015: 18 of 117 verbatim (15%)'152016: 19 of 91 verbatim (21%)'162017: 28 of 201 verbatim (14%)'172018: 49 of 208 verbatim (24%)'182019: 61 of 218 verbatim (28%)'192020: 25 of 186 verbatim (13%)'202021: 40 of 208 verbatim (19%)'212022: 121 of 500 verbatim (24%)'222023: 152 of 572 verbatim (27%)'232024: 449 of 1333 verbatim (34%)'242025: 266 of 1033 verbatim (26%)'252026: 133 of 508 verbatim (26%)'26
  • 2011: 5 of 76 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (7%).
  • 2012: 11 of 67 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (16%).
  • 2013: 17 of 94 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (18%).
  • 2014: 8 of 91 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (9%).
  • 2015: 18 of 117 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (15%).
  • 2016: 19 of 91 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (21%).
  • 2017: 28 of 201 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (14%).
  • 2018: 49 of 208 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (24%).
  • 2019: 61 of 218 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (28%).
  • 2020: 25 of 186 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (13%).
  • 2021: 40 of 208 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (19%).
  • 2022: 121 of 500 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (24%).
  • 2023: 152 of 572 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (27%).
  • 2024: 449 of 1333 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (34%).
  • 2025: 266 of 1033 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (26%).
  • 2026: 133 of 508 alert messages verbatim-confirmed (26%).

The verbatim share climbs sharply in recent years as Twitter/X archive recovery and university alert-page indexing make exact wording recoverable. The 2018 inflection point tracks the widespread adoption of social-media alert channels.

Methodology Note

All figures derive from the live data/cases/ directory and recompute at build time. Verbatim confirmation requires a direct source URL; reconstructed alerts are clearly marked. Response times measure the documented interval from incident start to first public alert (when reported). Cases lacking a documented interval appear as “Unknown” in the response histogram.