The Carolina Alert Emergency Notification System will undergo its spring testing at an unannounced time between today and Friday.
Unlike last semester, when the test was conducted at a specific date and time, this semester’s test will be unannounced even to the personnel activating the system, according to the university in a release.
A call will be placed to the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety symbolizing the start of an emergency, at which time the police will activate various mass notification systems.
The communication media that will be used in the test are the Carolina Alert website, Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feed, text messages, email, outdoor and indoor warning sirens, television message crawler and AlertFM.
Indoor sirens are used in Patterson Hall, Thornwell/Woodrow, Harper/Elliott Colleges and DeSaussure College; the university warns that people in those buildings should not be alarmed by the warning sirens.
Though the university will test both its text message and siren alerts this week, those forms of media will not be used in an actual alert situation unless there is an immediate risk to life safety that requires people to change their behavior, the release said.
—Compiled by Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor