NOTE: Only people currently associated with the University of Maryland are able to subscribe to the Alerts system.
The UMD Alerts system is a mass, urgent notification system, comprised of a variety of methods by which the University can notify students, faculty and staff of an active, major campus emergency:
When the University of Maryland Police Department determines there is an active emergency in which the public safety of the campus community may be at risk, an urgent notification through the UMD Alerts System will be initiated. Examples of when UMD Alerts will be activated include but are not limited to:
Localized incidents (such as a small fire, hazardous material spill in a lab, isolated criminal offense) likely would not require a mass notification.
Visit the UMD Alert FAQs page for more information.
All UMD Students, faculty and staff members will be automatically registered to receive email notification to their email address associated with their UMD directory account. In order to receive UMD Alert SMS (text) messages, faculty, staff and students must register a mobile device number.
UMD students, faculty and staff are added to the UMD Alerts system on a monthly basis. You information will be imported from Division of IT during the next import, which occurs during the first week of each month. To edit your settings, login on the UMD Alerts page.
Issued via text message (SMS) and email in the event of a situation or incident on or near campus which poses an imminent threat to health or safety. Localized incidents (such as a small fire, hazardous material spill in a lab, isolated criminal offense) likely would not require a mass notification. Examples of when an emergency alert may be issued include:
When there is important information about things affecting the campus community, an Informational Advisory will be issued via UMD Alerts. Examples include (but not limited to):
When there is important information about a crime or incident which poses an ongoing risk to the safety of University community members, UMPD will issue a "UMD Safety Notice." UMD Safety Notices are NOT intended to serve as emergency alerts. They are meant to provide information to the UMD community and to raise awareness. UMD Safety Notices are delivered to UMD Students, Faculty and Staff via email only (to the email account associated with the directory ID). Examples of when a UMD Safety Notice may be sent include:
UMD Alerts uses the text messaging (SMS network) feature of your cell phone to deliver alerts. To ensure you will receive UMD Alert text messages, be sure that your carrier allows messages from short codes. Short codes must be enabled on your mobile device carrier's account in order to receive SMS messages from UMD Alerts.