Urgent Message Policy

Policy Statement

This policy identifies the official channels that SUNY Oneonta uses to distribute institutionally critical information to members of the university community when the normal operations of the campus are substantially and unexpectedly disrupted. It also describes how members of the university community can receive such information.

Rationale

Inclement weather, utility outages, accidents, and other events and circumstances occasionally cause the university to cancel classes, curtail or suspend services, close offices or buildings, or take other actions to preserve the security of the campus, the safety of its occupants, and/or the public good. SUNY Oneonta recognizes the need to broadly and expediently share information about such occurrences and the university's response to them.

Applicability of the Policy

This policy applies to members of the university community to whom the university has assigned a university email account.

Policy Elaboration

O-Alert is the university's primary tool for distributing urgent messages. The university will attempt to distribute urgent messages through O-Alert before attempting to distribute them by other means. Anyone to whom the university has assigned a university email account may register to receive urgent messages through O-Alert.

Through O-Alert, the university can distribute urgent messages as:

• emails to registered recipients’ email accounts;
• voice calls to registered recipients’ phones;
• texts to registered recipients’ phones;
• tweets from the @SUNY_Oneonta Twitter account; and
• status updates on the SUNY Oneonta Facebook page.

After attempting to distribute urgent messages through O-Alert, the university also may attempt to distribute urgent messages through official secondary channels, such as:

• banners on the SUNY Oneonta website homepage;
• emails to all SUNY Oneonta email accounts;
• messages on myOneonta (my.oneonta.edu);
• voicemails to campus phones; and
• recordings at the SUNY Oneonta O-Alert Phone (607-436-2345).

SUNY Oneonta will attempt to distribute urgent messages using as many official channels as practicable. Because conditions that disrupt the normal operations of the campus also may affect the functionality of official channels and/or the university's ability to use them, the university cannot guarantee the distribution of any urgent message through any specific channel.

Definitions

“University email account” means an email address hosted at the oneonta.edu domain.

“Institutionally critical information” means university-related content deemed by the president, president’s designee(s) or UPD chief to be necessary to share with the university community in the interest of preserving the security of the campus, the safety of its occupants, and/or the public good during a substantial and unexpected disruption of normal operations of the campus.

Procedures

Any person to whom the university has assigned an email account may register to receive O-Alerts by completing and submitting the Emergency Alert Notification form (SUNY Oneonta O-Alert registration form).

The president, president’s designee(s), Office of Communication and Marketing, and UPD chief are authorized to distribute or direct the distribution of urgent messages.

UPD and the Office of Communication and Marketing shall be responsible for distributing urgent messages using O-Alert.

The Office of Communication and Marketing shall distribute urgent messages, to the extent practicable, through secondary channels as described in the Policy Elaboration above.

UPD shall be responsible for sharing urgent messages, to the extent practicable, through emails to all SUNY Oneonta email accounts as described in the Policy Elaboration above.

Forms

Emergency Alert Notification form (SUNY Oneonta O-Alert registration form)

Related Documents/Policies

Inclement Weather Policy