A-State
Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocol (Annual Security Report)
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro operates an emergency alert system that auto-enrolls all students and delivers text and email notifications for weather warnings, closures, and campus emergencies, with its Clery emergency-notification and timely-warning rules documented in the 2025 Annual Security Report.
Read the official policy~14,000 studentsA-State emergency alert system (Emergency Notification Service)
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Emergency alert system description and channelsnot yet verified against the source
The policy addresses this topic; its exact wording has not yet been verified against the source, so no text is quoted here. Open the official policy to read it.
A-State — Campus Safety page (host blocked automated fetch; text from search index)Automatic enrollment with opt-outnot yet verified against the source
The policy addresses this topic; its exact wording has not yet been verified against the source, so no text is quoted here. Open the official policy to read it.
A-State — Campus Safety page (host blocked automated fetch; text from search index)ASR section: Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocolnot yet verified against the source
The policy addresses this topic; its exact wording has not yet been verified against the source, so no text is quoted here. Open the official policy to read it.
A-State 2025 Annual Security Report (table-of-contents heading; PDF blocked automated fetch)At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- A-State's emergency alert system is used for urgent situations — severe weather warnings, class cancellations, and campus emergencies. Per Clery and the ASR's Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocol, emergency notifications are issued for significant emergencies or dangerous situations posing an immediate threat to health or safety, and timely warnings for Clery-reportable crimes representing an ongoing threat; the exact ASR wording was not confirmable verbatim here.
- Who decides
- University Police and the Office of Environmental Health, Safety & Risk Management (Safety & Emergency Management) coordinate A-State's emergency notifications and Clery warnings. The specific position with final authority to confirm and trigger an emergency notification was not confirmed verbatim (astate.edu and the ASR PDF blocked automated fetching).
- Timeliness standard
- A-State's ASR addresses emergency-notification timing under Clery (issuance without delay upon confirmation), but the precise internal timing language was not confirmable verbatim in this environment.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- A-State's Annual Security Report (Oct. 1, 2025) contains dedicated sections for Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocol, Emergency Procedures, Evacuation Procedures, and Tests of Emergency Procedures, framing the program around Clery emergency-notification and timely-warning obligations.
- Testing cadence
- The ASR includes a 'Tests of Emergency Procedures' section, indicating A-State documents periodic tests of its emergency systems; the exact published cadence was not confirmed verbatim in this review.
- Scope & limits
- All students are automatically enrolled in the alert system (opt-out via the Pack Portal / myCampus), guaranteeing baseline text/email reach to enrolled students; the campus supplements electronic alerts with red call boxes and blue-light emergency phone towers that connect directly to University Police.
ChannelsSmsEmailWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
Arkansas State University (A-State), the flagship of the ASU System and a public R2 university in Jonesboro, runs a campus emergency alert system that the university describes plainly: 'A-State uses an emergency alert system to keep you in the loop during urgent situations,' sending messages 'by text and email if there's a weather warning, class cancellation, or any emergency on campus.' A-State also refers to the program as an 'Emergency Notification Service' provided 'for faculty, staff, students, and other members of the university community.'
A defining feature is automatic enrollment with opt-out: 'Every student is automatically signed up,' and members may update their settings in the Pack Portal (older materials reference a myCampus portal opt-out). That auto-enroll posture closes the opt-in coverage gap that limits keyword-subscription systems and guarantees baseline reach to enrolled students. The physical safety layer on the Jonesboro campus includes emergency call boxes — red with a blue light on top — and blue-light emergency phone towers that flash when activated and connect directly to University Police.
A-State's Clery alert-and-warning rules are documented in its Annual Security Report (published October 1, 2025), which contains explicit sections titled 'Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocol,' 'Emergency Procedures,' 'Evacuation Procedures,' and 'Tests of Emergency Procedures.' The Office of Environmental Health, Safety & Risk Management / Safety & Emergency Management coordinates emergency planning alongside University Police.
Two honesty caveats apply. First, this review could not confirm that A-State publishes a distinct trademarked brand name (e.g., 'A-State Alert' or a Red Wolves-themed name) for the notification system; the official pages consistently call it an 'emergency alert system' or 'Emergency Notification Service' rather than a branded product, so this record uses that descriptive name rather than inventing one. Second, astate.edu hosts and the ASR PDF return HTTP 403 to automated fetching here, so the exact confirmation-and-timing wording from the ASR's Emergency Notification Policy section could not be captured byte-for-byte; the excerpts below are drawn from indexed snippets of official A-State pages, none are marked verbatim-confirmed without a second independent corroboration, and the overall confidence is set to medium accordingly.
Takeaways
Key findings
A-State (Jonesboro) runs a campus emergency alert system delivering text and email for weather warnings, closures, and emergencies.
Every student is automatically enrolled, with opt-out and settings managed in the Pack Portal.
Clery alert-and-warning rules live in the 2025 Annual Security Report, which has explicit sections for Emergency Notification Policy and Alerting Protocol, Emergency Procedures, Evacuation, and Tests of Emergency Procedures.
The physical layer includes red emergency call boxes and blue-light phone towers connecting directly to University Police.
Could NOT confirm a distinct branded product name for the system (official pages call it an 'emergency alert system' / 'Emergency Notification Service'); astate.edu and the ASR PDF blocked automated fetching, so no excerpt is verbatim-confirmed and confidence is medium.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
4 documented times A-State’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Clery ASR
- Official
- Official
- Official
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningpublic-r2arkansasa-stateauto-enrollannual-security-report
Added 2026-06-22Updated 2026-09-13Via ingestion