On Friday, April 13, 2018 Nicole Hawley joined our Emergency Management team as a Program Specialist.   Nicole comes to us from the City of Hartford, where over the past 10 years she held various roles, including Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the City of Hartford Health and Human Services Department. During her time there, she played a key role in the overseeing of all sheltering efforts during major storms; employee trainings; and monitoring all federal and state contract deliverables and reporting. Nicole also worked one-on-one with the State of Connecticut and Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when monitoring travelers who were coming into the State of Connecticut from high-risked countries. But in her most recent role, her focus was on the health and safety of homes in Hartford, by assisting low-income homeowners in obtaining grants through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other funding sources to fix up the housing stock and make homes safe.

 

Nicole has a strong background in community outreach, communications, and program development. She holds a Bachelors of Arts from Central Connecticut State University and a Master’s of Science from Springfield College in Organization Management and Leadership.

You’re not alone in checking weather forecasts for information on the fourth nor’easter scheduled to affect the Northeast this month. University of Connecticut personnel are, too.

Although predictions for Wednesday’s snow accumulation may be in flux, preparations are not.

When the snow starts to fall, hundreds of workers at UConn labor around the clock to clear roads and sidewalks, parking lots and stairways. Meet some of the people who don’t rest until classrooms and labs are ready to open.

March 20, 2018 – UConn Chief of Police Hans Rhynhart, UConn Fire Chief Gregory Priest, and Interim Director of Emergency Management Chris Renshaw

On Tuesday, March 20, between noon and 1 p.m., the University will conduct a regular test of its Emergency Alert System. If you’re a student, faculty member, or staff member at Storrs, a regional campus, or the UConn School of Law, you’ll get a text message and email. If you’re at Storrs, you may hear a siren as well.

This test happens every semester, and is intended to keep the entire UConn community in a state of preparedness for any hazard that might present itself. But how much do you know about what to do in an emergency? To make sure this test is something more than just one of many texts and emails you’ll get during the day, this brief “user’s guide” is intended to help acquaint you with what it means when your phone buzzes with a message from UConnAlert.

UConnAlert

UConnAlert is the university’s term for the overall system of preparedness and notification used for emergency situations. Its home is alert.uconn.edu, where anyone with a Net ID can sign up to receive notifications, and which contains a wealth of information. In the event of a serious, long-duration emergency, updated information will be posted on this website in a blog, so keep that url handy.

One of the important features of the Alert website is a quick summary of terms that may be used by the university in communicating during an emergency, like “lockdown,” “shelter-in-place,” “evacuation,” and “all clear.” These terms are familiar in many contexts – many of our students are familiar with lockdown drills from primary and secondary school, for example – but the definitions and protocols aren’t standardized across every agency and institution that uses them.

This can create confusion – what’s the difference between a lockdown and an order to shelter-in-place? – at a time when every second is crucial. This is particularly true for an institution the size and complexity of UConn – a lockdown means one thing for an elementary school, but what does it mean for a university with locations across the state, and a campus in Storrs that’s effectively a small city?

Another factor to remember is that no list of official terminology, no matter how comprehensive, can account for every individual’s experience across an array of emergency situations that will differ hugely in scope, duration, and intensity. If you’re walking across Fairfield Way and see that an order to shelter-in-place has been issued because of a tornado moving into the area, what do you do?

That’s why the Alert site has, among its features, a list of Hazard Guides that detail what you can do to prepare for, and overcome, a range of the most common and most severe emergency situations. It’s hard to feel a sense of urgency when things are calm, but it’s also suboptimal to be trying to download a PDF about tornadoes when one is five minutes away from your location.

When Do You Hear From Us?

The UConnAlert system is intended for use in three types of scenarios: a hazard presenting an immediate danger to life and safety; a large-scale change to the university’s operating schedule for any reason; and limited-impact situations that don’t present health or safety dangers, but which may disrupt the operations of a component or components of the university.

Let’s start with the most common: changes to the university’s schedule. You’re probably familiar with this in the form of alert messages regarding winter weather. When a decision is made to alter the university’s schedule, a message is sent out via text and email, while at the same time the university’s main social media channels and emergency phone line are updated. Alert.uconn.edu is also updated with information on the closure. This is fairly straightforward, but the frequency of its use, depending on the severity of a particular winter, can create the false impression that UConnAlert is only a tool to communicate schedule changes. It’s essential to know that the main intended use of UConnAlert is to quickly convey urgent information in the event of a hazard that presents a danger to human lives.

That’s why only one feature of the system – the email message – is used for the second-most common type of notification: limited-impact situations. A power outage in a residence hall or a water main break that affects a classroom building are headaches for the students, faculty, and staff involved, but they aren’t immediately life-threatening hazards. That’s why it’s important to check the Clutter or Spam folders in your email program, to make sure messages from UConnAlert aren’t being diverted there.

This brings us to the final, and thankfully most rare, scenario in which UConnAlert is used: immediate dangers to life and safety. These can be anything from naturally-occurring hazards, like a tornado or a fire following a lightning strike, to violence.

The threat which provokes the most inquiries from our community is what’s known as an “active shooter.” It is sickening that this has become a routine topic of preparation for universities and K-12 schools alike, but it is the reality of our society. The odds of this happening are low, but they aren’t non-existent; as a result, the university is constantly training and preparing to respond to an active shooter.

If that ever occurs, UConnAlert will send out a text and email indicating the nature of the threat and providing all the information we are able to. The message may also include a simple instruction: “Run Hide Fight.” This has produced an anxious response in other universities that have been forced to communicate it, but the message is the national protocol adopted and taught by the Department of Homeland Security.

In essence, what this means is that your first course of action should be to flee a building where an active shooter is present, if it is safe to do so. Avoid “staging areas” like parking lots, and put as much distance between you and the location with the shooter as possible.

If this isn’t possible, option two is to “hide.” What this means in practice is to get to a room that presents a relative degree of security – a door that locks, ideally without windows, and with materials inside that can be used to barricade the door – and call 911 if you can do so safely.

Finally, there is the last option. If you cannot run and you cannot hide, offering physical resistance may save your life or the lives of others. It is an awful possibility to discuss; we do not live in a society where it can be ruled out as a choice you may have to make.

In conclusion, as a user of UConnAlert, you should make it a point to do the following:

• Visit alert.uconn.edu
• Sign up for alerts if you haven’t already done so
• Familiarize yourself with emergency terminology
• Browse the hazard guides
• Make sure UConnAlert emails aren’t going to your Clutter folder

You can increase your level of preparedness for an active shooter scenario by visiting the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Active Shooter Preparedness webpage at https://www.dhs.gov/active-shooter-preparedness.

The UConn Police Department’s Community Outreach Unit also offers community presentations including Responding to an Active Threat: A Survival Mindset.During this engaging one or two hour program, you will participate in discussions about the realistic, tactical implementation of Run, Hide, Fight ^TM; developing a survival mindset and physiological responses to threat encounters; and identifying and disrupting the pathway to violence through proactive prevention measures on campus. If you or your group is interested in one of these UConn Police Community Outreach programs email PDStartTeam@uconn.edu for more information.

It is our sincere hope that you only get UConnAlerts during once-a-semester tests and in the event of yet another Nor’Easter. Regardless, the emergency alert system exists for your benefit: be an active participant in that system, and remember to stay alert.

 

The University of Connecticut will implement the use of alert sirens during its semesterly emergency alert system test at 12:25 p.m. Tuesday.

“The big change to the way that we’re notifying (the UConn community) is by incorporating the outdoor notification siren system,” Captain Chris Renshaw, the fire and police department’s Office of Emergency Management liaison, said.

Renshaw said they wanted to add this element to the alert system to address the fact that people may not always have their phones on them to get the text, email or social media notifications.

“The thought is not everyone has their phone on them when they’re outside…you may not… know that an alert is going out, but the sirens putting a tone out should be a prompt that: ‘hey something’s going on and you should check out why’,” Renshaw said.

The sirens will emit an audible wave-form tone to alert people to check the UConnAlert website, Renshaw said.

“We didn’t want people to catch only half the message,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said his office also had concerns about the the waves bouncing off buildings making it difficult to properly decipher the message.

There are nine siren speakers on the main Storrs campus and one at depot campus, Renshaw said. Renshaw said his office may look to increase the number of sirens on the Storrs campus as well as expanding it to the branch campuses.

“Additional sirens may be something we look at in the future but we’re just trying to utilize the ones we have in place right now,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said the sirens have been in place for a while, but they are only being implemented this year.

“No one’s ever heard them before and, moving forward, every time there’s an emergency notification, which ideally is never…(the sirens)will be associated with it,” Renshaw said.

Another new part of the alert system is the creation of an SMS short code that allows people who do not have a net ID to enroll in text message emergency alerts.

“Parents, local businesses, visitors, community partners, and others can now get the same UConnAlert text messages that students, faculty and staff receive in the event of emergencies or other urgent situations,” the UConnAlert website said.

People can text UCONNALERT (one word, not case-sensitive) to 888-777 to enroll.

Renshaw said this new element was added to the system to allow visitors, businesses near or on campus and religious centers to receive these messages.

“Certainly, if something impacted us, it would impact them as well, and we’re enabling this feature so they can self-subscribe so they can get those notifications in real time,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said this was a preemptive move to ensure that anyone who may be impacted by a situation can get important information.

“Everyone who may be impacted by an emergency on the UConn campuses, regardless of who they are, should have access to this information,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said that, while the system is already rather comprehensive, this new dimension expands it even further.

“It’s just another layer of notification(s) into an already robust system,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said the Office of Emergency Management is looking to work with the Lodewick Visitor’s Center and Events and Conference Services to inform visitors that they can enroll in the system to be prepared should anything happen during their visit.

Renshaw said the purpose of these tests is to make sure people are familiar with the system and that it is reaching everyone in the community as well as make sure the system and equipment are functioning.

“It allows us the opportunity to do a little bit of outreach to let people know the system is there, though we hope we never have to use it,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said the university only utilizes this extensive system if there is a problem that is deemed to be “an immediate danger to life or health.”

Renshaw said examples of these situations include gas leaks, downed power lines, an ongoing police investigation like the one at Oak hall last year or an active threat.

Renshaw said people must check alert.uconn.edu (http://alert.uconn.edu/) for information about what to do during an emergency and the most up-to-date updates on the situation.

“That’s designed as a constant reference point, so as…things unfold you turn to that website,” Renshaw said. “That’s the pivotal point for information during an emergency.”

Renshaw said that, in addition to updates about a situation, people can find resources about what to do before, during and after an emergency.

“It’s not just ‘hey there’s an emergency’ it’s ‘what do I next’,” Renshaw said.

Renshaw said that after completing these tests, his office always looks for ways to reach more people in more ways.

“What we have pulled from these tests is a continual look at expanding the system to widen our coverage,” Renshaw said.

 

Link to original article: Daily Campus

Starting this fall on the Storrs campus, the UConnALERT notification system will include the use of outdoor sirens any time an emergency alert is issued. Each siren will emit a loud, waveform tone to alert anyone in hearing distance that an incident is occurring that presents an immediate danger to health and safety. The sirens will not include a recorded voice message. Instead, this will be another signal to students, faculty, staff, and visitors that a dangerous situation is taking place, and that they should visit alert.uconn.edu for guidance. The use of the sirens is part of a multi-layered emergency notification system that includes text messages, email, University webpage banners, application notifications through the MyUConn smartphone app and the alert.uconn.edu website.  The sirens will be included in the regular tests of the UConnALERT notification system, which take place once per semester.
 
For more information, contact: Capt. Chris Renshaw at 860-486-4925

The Office of Emergency Management is excited to announce that parents, local businesses, visitors, community partners and others can now get the same UConn Alert text messages that students, faculty, and staff receive in the event of emergencies or other urgent situations.
 
Previously, messages about incidents ranging from weather-related schedule changes to power outages could only be received by people with a UConn “Net ID” code. Now, thanks to a new addition to UConn’s emergency communications toolbox, those messages can be received by anyone who texts “UCONNALERT” (one word, not case-sensitive) to 888-777.
 
Standard messaging and data rates may apply, and anyone who signs up can opt out by simply texting “STOP” to the same number. This is not a routine messaging tool, and those signing up will only receive urgent communications about situations with potential impact to health and safety. Whenever such a message is received, be sure to follow the guidance in the text alert, and visit alert.uconn.edu for additional information and updates.
 
For more information, contact: Capt. Chris Renshaw at 860-486-4925

UConn’s Office of Emergency Management has developed a short, new video detailing how to survive if you are caught in an active threat situation.

The new video features guidelines put forth by the Department of Homeland Security in a format that is easy to digest and less than one minute long. It is the first of a new series of shareable videos that aim to educate viewers with a basic understanding of how to react during all types of hazardous events that may occur on campus – and beyond.

The link to UConn OEM’s YouTube page and video can be found here.

If you would like to know more about what to do if you encounter an active threat (or active shooter), check out our Emergency Hazard Guide to ensure you are equipped with the latest information.

Don’t forget to share this video with your friends and fellow Huskies to ensure everyone you know is #UConnReady.

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dOkmwI-9bpk

 

UConn OEM YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHjoAXTYVWC7Bb5CO_EWWiw.

Sent on Behalf of University Information and Technology Services (UITS)

—

To the University Community,

 

University Information Technology Services (UITS) would like to draw your attention to the risks of email phishing scams, including one that occurred yesterday.

In that instance, the phishing scam involved an email that appeared to come from Payroll with the subject line, “ONLINE ACCESS TO CORRECTED W-2 WAGE AND TAX STATEMENT(S) (PLEASE VIEW).”

This message was malicious, and an attempt to steal personal information by prompting recipients to click a link to view their corrected 2016 W-2. This attack exploited current events (i.e., tax season) and tailored the message to UConn by referencing CoreCT.

UITS is aware of the spam message and has taken steps to block and remove the email from inboxes, but we also encourage everyone in our community to be suspicious of unsolicited requests for personal information, including credentials.

In general, you should never volunteer confidential or personal information based on any contact that you did not explicitly initiate. For more comprehensive information about this and other threats, visit the UITS Information Security Office website at security.uconn.edu.

If you clicked on the link in the fraudulent message or have questions or concerns about this phishing attack, contact the UITS Help Center at 860-486-HELP (860-486-4357).

 

Sincerely,

Michael Mundrane, Chief Information Officer and Vice Provost

Jason Pufahl, Chief Information Security Officer