Emergency Alerts To Campus Community

1. Purpose

This policy provides information about how the campus community of Brigham Young University–Hawaii (“BYU–Hawaii” or “university”) will be notified of emergency situations. 

2. Policy

The Timely Warning and Emergency Notification Committee (“Committee”) is responsible for providing emergency alerts to the campus community. They issue warnings about certain crimes that represent a serious or continuing safety threat to employees or students. The Committee also issues notifications about significant emergencies or dangerous situations. The Committee is responsible for overseeing the university’s emergency response program and advising university leadership on timely warning and emergency notification requirements.

3. Implementation

3.1 Registration

The university will provide emergency information to the campus community through its emergency mass notification system. To receive messages, faculty, staff, and students must register their contact information in the student information system.

3.2 Timely Warning

The Committee will issue timely warnings for reports of Clery Act crimes in the university’s Clery Act Geography that represent a serious or continuing threat to faculty, staff, or students and that are reported to any of the following (identified as Timely Warning and Emergency Notification Campus Security Authorities in the Clery Act policy): campus security employees, campus safety and risk manager, chief compliance officer, student life vice president, advancement vice president, operations vice president, or Counseling Services director. The Committee will determine whether the situation represents a serious or continuing threat to students and employees based on the nature of the crime reported and the continuing danger to the campus community and will determine the content of the warning.

3.3 Emergency Notification

The Committee will issue an emergency notification to students and employees upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus that involves an immediate or impending threat to health or safety.

3.4 Issuing Warnings

Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications may be issued using some or all the following means of communication: mass email, campus phone system, personal cell phones, Campus Safety & Security department webpage, university’s webpage, and fire alarm system.

The content of a timely warning will avoid compromising law enforcement efforts and will maintain victim confidentiality while providing sufficient information to prevent similar incidents.

An emergency notification will not be issued if it will compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. If the university issues an emergency notification, it will not issue a timely warning based on the same circumstance.

If a quorum of the Committee cannot convene, the Campus Safety & Security director is authorized to issue a timely warning or emergency notification and determine the content without a Committee meeting. Full-time employees of the Campus Safety & Security department are designated to issue a notification and determine the content of a warning in urgent circumstances.

3.5 Testing

At least annually, the university will test the emergency mass notification system. Tests will be scheduled and may be announced or unannounced. The university will maintain records of each test, including a description of the test, the date of the test, the time the test started and ended, and whether it was announced or unannounced, for seven years.

3.6 Committee

The Timely Warning and Emergency Notification Committee will consist of the advancement, operations and student life vice presidents, as well as the Campus Safety & Security and the Counseling Services directors.

3.7 Emergency Alert Procedure

When the Committee has confirmed that a significant emergency or dangerous situation is occurring on campus that involves an immediate or impending threat to the health or safety of students or employees, the Committee carries out the following Emergency Alert Procedure:

1. identify the segment of campus requiring an Emergency Notification or a Timely Warning; 
   
2. determine the content of the Emergency Notification or Timely Warning, without delay and taking into account the safety of the community;  
   
3. issue an Emergency Notification or Timely Warning, unless issuing the notification will, in the professional judgment of the responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency;  
   
4. document the decisions made to fulfill steps one through three of this procedure; and 
   
5. promptly share the documentation with the Office of Compliance & Ethics. 

The Committee delivers the Emergency Notification or Timely Warning to the appropriate segment or segments of the campus community through one or more of the following methods:

• emergency mass notification system 
  
• mass email 
  
• campus phone system 
  
• personal cell phones 
  
• BYU–Hawaii websites 
  
• fire alarm system 
  
• public address systems (available in limited facilities) 

If the Committee issues an Emergency Notification, it will not issue a Timely Warning based on the same circumstance.

3.7.1 Disseminating Emergency Information to the Larger Community

If the university issues an emergency alert, the Committee decides whether to disseminate emergency information to the larger community.

If the Committee decides to disseminate emergency information to the larger community, the Committee works with University Communications to relay that emergency information via one or more of the following:

• BYU–Hawaii websites 
  
• official university social media accounts 
  
• local news stations 
  
• print media 

4. Related Policies and Procedures

• Clery Act 
  
• Disruptive Student Conduct