Weather and Emergency Alerts

Parents, family, or friends of Ferris students can receive Ferris State University emergency messaging. Completing the following action will register a cell phone to receive Ferris State text alerts. All Ferris State location messages will be received when registering a cell number.

• Text the word FerrisAlerts to the number 67283 on the cell phone you wish to register with the system.
• The system will respond back with a confirmation message.
• Opt out of all messages by texting STOP to the number 67283. (this stops all text messages from being sent to the cell number).

The Rave Mobile Alert and Alertus Unified Facility Notification translate to Ferris State Emergency Text Alerts and Computer Desktop Notification for Faculty, Staff and Students. 

In an emergency situation, messages need to be delivered quickly and efficiently to warn the University community about emergency or hazardous situations, and provide students, faculty, and staff with information necessary for them to make the best possible safety choices for themselves. These tools greatly improve the notification by streamlining the process and allowing emergency responders to concentrate on the emergency, not the notification. This system allows for emergency messages to be distributed by all, or any combination of the following:

• Texts
• Phone message
• Emails
• Desktop computers (Alertus)
• Electronic signage on campus
• Outdoor broadcast system (triggered automatically by County weather alerts or as authorized individually by Ferris State DPS)
• Social Media

In an emergency, one of the objectives of the Ferris State DPS is to send out emergency information as soon as confirmation of the emergency is established. This process requires a streamlined approval matrix where the reception, confirmation, and dissemination of the message is handled within a single authority.

At Ferris State, this process was streamlined to authorize the Ferris Police Department to disseminate emergency messaging information. Two new policies were created to train all police officers and student dispatchers to disseminate emergency information as quickly as possible. Here is how this protocol works:

• The department receives emergency information at our 24 hour dispatch or from the Meceola Consolidated Dispatch Center (911).
• The on-duty dispatcher immediately notifies the on-duty police supervisor or the senior on-duty police officer of the emergency.
• The dispatcher and/or the police supervisor notifies the Director, or in his/her absence the Assistant Director, who then verifies the emergency, and the need for an emergency message.
• The Director, Assistant Director, or in their absence the on-duty supervisor or senior police officer, crafts the message and authorizes the on-duty dispatcher to send out the RAVE alert.
• The RAVE alert text messages are restricted to 150 characters, so only a short message of the danger/emergency is provided, typically followed by a recommended action.
• As soon as possible, coordinating with the University Advancement and Marketing department, a more detailed message regarding the emergency will be posted on the ferris.edu website. This process typically continues for the duration of the emergency.
• When the emergency no longer exists and when warranted, an all-clear message is sent.

By reducing the layers of approval required for emergency messaging, a system at Ferris was created which assures the fastest and most efficient emergency messaging possible.

The combined efforts of Campus Police, Telecommunications, Information Technology and the Safety, Health, Environmental & Risk Management departments made possible the implementation of the University Wide Emergency Text Alert and Computer Desktop Notification systems.  These systems are integrated and make our capability of a “one button” emergency messaging platform a reality.

Dispatchers can quickly deploy a message in the event of an emergency or campus closure.  Critical information from the National Weather Service about hazardous weather or civil emergency, such as tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, are automatically relayed by text message to campus community members who have signed up for Emergency Text Alerts.  A simple sign-up process is all it takes to register to receive text alerts.