New app will alert students, others to safety messaging

As of September 1, 2018 everyone with the new app, Alert WesternU, will receive alerts with important safety messaging in the event of a campus-wide emergency.

The Alert WesternU app can be downloaded from the Apps store or Google Play by searching Everbridge.

Anyone with a current uwo.ca email address, including affiliates, will be automatically subscribed to receive email notifications once they download the app. (Students will not be able to opt out of the emails.) You may also visit alert.westernu.ca to learn how to add up to three mobile numbers and two additional email addresses to your account. This will allow students, staff and faculty to add parents, spouses, family members, etc..

Alert WesternU came after a recognized need for an improved emergency communications strategy for Western. Western now has centralized and coordinated access to the entire campus community in the event of an emergency.

“Western University and our affiliates are committed to maintaining safe and healthy campuses. The implementation of Alert WesternU is one more way we are improving emergency communication across our campuses,” Dan Redmond, Director, Campus Community Police Services at Western University, says.

Alert WesternU will be powered by Everbridge, a leading provider of critical communication solutions used by many governments and higher education organizations, selected after a competitive acquisition process. Everbridge stores minimal information in an encrypted state and will never grant third party access to the data.

Alert WesternU will be tested three times annually: the first Wednesday in October; the last Wednesday in January; and Wednesday in Emergency Preparedness Week in May. Accommodations for those visually or hearing impaired can be made by contacting alerthelp@westernu.ca.

More information will be available during the first full week of classes and at: https://alert.westernu.ca/about_us/FAQs.html