Last year PSU started an emergency text messaging service. This year we installed an emergency siren. In addition to the web and PSU email, these new services help us keep pace with the need to communicate effectively with the campus community during urgent and dangerous situations.

The new siren is located in the parking lot near the HUB. Seated on top of a telephone pole, it looks like a bird hotel, although any opportunists in the flock will soon think twice. We'll be testing the system in September, an event the campus will hear about well in advance. In a real emergency, however, the siren will sound. It means 'heads up, take cover and seek information from text alerts and the PSU web pages.'

If you've not signed up for PSU Alerts (the text alert system), go to myPlymouth and click on the PSU Alert on the left sidebar. Many of you signed up last year. You can log in again and review your status and select any additional notifications you might like to receive (snow days, curtailed operations, network outages, etc).

We realize the deluge of information coming at you these days. Signing up to receive more seems runs contrary to the filters (literal and figurative) we are setting up for ourselves. However, If there is a bona fide emergency on campus, cell phone users who sign up will be the first to know. This is information you want quickly!

For more information on PSU emergency procedures, see www.plymouth.edu/emergency .