Zot!Alert subscribers are in the know during emergencies

Students, faculty and staff received text message alerts and subsequent “all clear” messages on their cell phones Sunday after an armed robbery in the Mesa Court Residence Hall. Such emergencies are exactly why campus administrators created zotAlert, an emergency alert system that uses text messages to quickly notify the campus community of a natural disaster, crisis response or need to secure the campus. To be used only in an emergency, zotAlert adds to the university’s existing emergency communications network. Faculty and staff can sign up for zotAlert messages by visiting PhUpdate, logging in and updating their profile with an emergency cell phone number. Students are strongly encouraged to provide their cell phone numbers to the university by visiting StudentAccess, clicking “Change of Address” and updating their contact (including emergency) information.