Higher Education Act

Western Illinois University Campus Safety Notification Standard Operating Procedures

The WIU Emergency Alert System (WEAS) builds on current methods of information distribution and communication and enhances Western's ability to quickly and reliably communicate with students, staff, and faculty in the event of an emergency. The University will only activate the system for emergency purposes. In an emergency, WEAS allows University officials to contact the entire campus community via voice, text, and e-mail messages.

WEAS is used to communicate official information during an emergency or crisis situation that disrupts campus operations or threatens the immediate health or safety of the campus community. The Office of Public Safety and key campus administrators will assess the situation. The campus risk manager, along with an OPS designee and the director of University Relations, will determine the content of the message and will use some or all of the methods available through WEAS to communicate the situation to the campus community.

The University may also use the public address system available in the residence halls, in addition to text messages, emails, and phone calls, in conjunction with information posted on the University's home page and social media accounts, to notify the campus community in the event of an emergency.

Western Illinois University officials encourage everyone in our campus community to keep emergency information current. The contact information you provide for the WEAS database will not be shared with other entities, and it will be kept private and confidential. The contact information is used only for the Emergency Alert System.

The following email addresses are used when issuing Campus Safety Notices/Emergency Alerts:

campussafetynotice@wiu.edu: To make the campus community aware of an incident that has been reported.

emergencyalert@wiu.edu: To notify the campus community of an immediate and/or ongoing threat (e.g. fire in a campus building).

weather@wiu.edu: To notify the campus community of a weather-related announcement/closure due to weather.

noticetocampuscommunity@wiu.edu: To notify the campus community of a non-emergency situation (e.g. boil order).

Complete information about emergency situations/threats and campus safety notices will always be posted at wiu.edu and at wiu.edu/safety.