Members of the Campus Community,

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently completed a test of our emergency response and evacuation plans. The test included two components: a drill and an exercise. The drill (a test of our Illini-Alert emergency notification system) was initiated on Sept. 3 at 10 a.m. This drill was announced ahead of time by campus Massmail and an Eweek notice. The Illini-Alert system sent an email to the illinois.edu addresses of all active faculty, staff and students. Those who have registered alternate email addresses also received an email notification. Those who have registered a cellphone were sent a text message during this drill.

In an attempt to increase the speed and breadth of emergency communications, the campus increased Illini-Alert modes of emergency communication to include Facebook, Twitter and our Emergency Web Alert System. This multi-modal approach provides a robust communication engine that will continue to function successfully even if one system fails to work properly.

If you have not signed up to receive emergency messages through Illini-Alert, please visit http://emergency.illinois.edu to register.

The second component of the test was a functional exercise conducted Sept. 13 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Champaign County Emergency Operations Center. The exercise was announced in advance in a campus Eweek notice. The functional exercise involved an F4 tornado that directly affected campus. The exercise scenario tested various components of the Campus Emergency Operations Plan, including evacuation procedures.

To view the University’s emergency response and evacuation procedures, please visit http://www.dps.illinois.edu/emergencyplanning/evacproc.html.

The Division of Public Safety hopes this information is useful to all those who work, study, and visit our campus community.

Lieutenant Todd Short
University of Illinois Police Department/Office of Campus Emergency Planning