Procedures for emergency notification, response and evacuation
December 3, 2020 6:01 AM

Dear campus community member,

In order to maintain an effective emergency response and evacuation plan, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently completed a test including two components: a drill and an exercise. The annual test is designed to challenge our emergency response procedures and how we notify you of a threat to our campus community.

We are notifying you of these efforts to keep you informed about how we intend to protect our students, faculty, staff and visitors in the event of an emergency, and to comply with disclosure requirements outlined in federal law. No additional action on your part is required in response to this message.

On October 14, university stakeholders and emergency responders gathered virtually for a tabletop exercise from 9-11 a.m. Those involved were presented with a fictional scenario involving a civil demonstration that escalated and disrupted campus operations. The exercise tested various components of the Campus Emergency Operations Plan, including evacuation procedures.

For the second component, we initiated a test of our Illini-Alert emergency notification system on December 1. The drill was announced ahead of time by a mass email to campus and an Eweek notification to faculty and staff. The Illini-Alert was sent by email to the campus email addresses of all active students, faculty and staff. Those who have registered alternate email addresses also received a notification. Those who have registered a cellphone number were sent a text message during this drill.

Illini-Alert messages are also posted to Facebook, Twitter, digital signage and on campus websites through our Emergency Web Alert System. This approach increases the speed and breadth of our distribution of emergency notifications, and it provides a communication mechanism that will continue to function successfully even if one component fails to work properly.

This test was conducted to ensure we have a robust response plan in the event of a campus emergency, and that our emergency notifications will reach you in a timely and effective manner. If you have not signed up to receive emergency messages through Illini-Alert, please visit emergency.illinois.edu to register.

To view the University’s emergency response and evacuation procedures, please visit go.illinois.edu/EmergencyResponse. 

The University of Illinois Police Department is committed to maintaining a safe and secure campus environment where education, research and public service can flourish. We can only do so with the assistance of our community, and we hope this information is useful to all of our campus partners.

Sincerely,

Sherry Wooten

Emergency Management Coordinator
Division of Public Safety