Monday, July 7, 2014
Written by: Stephen Pradarelli

The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety will conduct a routine, campus-wide test of its Hawk Alert emergency notification system at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 9.

A test message will be delivered to all faculty, staff, and students via their campus email addresses, and additionally by voice call to phone and/or text message based on individuals’ preference settings.

Subscribers are encouraged to answer their phones and listen to and read test messages, which will allow university officials to monitor the system’s success. The system is programmed to retry phone numbers if they are not answered.

Hawk Alert is used to notify the campus community of threats to physical safety in emergency situations (tornado, violence, hazardous material incident, and other such incidences). Through Hawk Alert, UI administrators can send recorded or electronic emergency messages to UI students, faculty, and staff via mobile phones (both voice and text messages), home phones, office phones, and work and personal email addresses.

Subscribers can manage the methods by which they receive Hawk Alerts. By default, alerts are sent to individuals’ official UI email addresses. However, for quickest delivery of alerts, subscribers are strongly encouraged to also enter and select their mobile phone numbers to receive text message alerts.

To make sure you are subscribed, or to change the delivery options, follow these five steps:

  • Log in to ISIS (students) or Employee Self Service (faculty and staff).
  • Navigate to the Hawk Alert contact information links, or follow the direct links available on the Hawk Alert website.
  • Review the Hawk Alert contact information listed for you.
  • Make the appropriate additions or changes using the input boxes and drop-down menus.
  • Click the "Update Hawk Alert Contact Information" bar at the bottom of the page to save your changes. (If no changes are necessary, simply log off.)

For assistance, contact the ITS Help Desk at 319-384-HELP (4357) or its-helpdesk@uiowa.edu.

For more information, visit the Hawk Alert website.