Semi-Annual ENS Drill helps university take steps toward becoming prepared
In conjunction with “The Great Idaho ShakeOut” on October 17, 2019, Boise State University will test its emergency notification system (ENS) BroncoAlert components Thursday between 11:30 am and 12:00 pm. Text messaging, email, Twitter and Facebook channels will all be tested. The Boise State homepage (boisestate.edu) will also display a BroncoAlert banner as part of the test.
At approximately 11:45 am, the test will begin. Our message will announce “This is a test of the Boise State emergency notification system.” At approximately 11:59 am, an “all clear” message highlighting “The Great Idaho Shakeout” and additional campus safety resources will be sent through a second BroncoAlert.
Recently, the campus transitioned from an Opt-In system, where students, faculty and staff had to Opt-In with their mobile devices to receive text messaging, to an Opt-Out system where all mobile devices in the Campus Solutions database are now uploaded to BroncoAlert. John Kaplan, Associate Vice President for the Department of Public Safety, stated: “We were disappointed with the Opt-In percentages prior to the change, where we had less than 40% of our students Opted-In for text messaging. Now, with the transition to an Opt-Out protocol, we know over 90% of the campus community will receive text messaging through BroncoAlert during a campus emergency and text messaging is the quickest way to receive an emergency notification.”
Boise State is required by federal law (Clery Act) to “immediately notify the campus community upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on campus that involves an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees.” Text messaging is the single, fastest way to provide notification during a large, emergency incident on campus and we use BroncoAlert to do so. Some of the incidents Boise State would send out emergency notification include weather, fire, evacuation, shelter-in-place, and other threats and hazards determined to be critical campus emergencies.
If you have any issues receiving BroncoAlerts during the test, contact the Office of Emergency Management at 208-426-4991 or email eoc@boisestate.edu for assistance on how to update your information in MyBoiseState.