Update Your Rutgers Emergency Contact Information

April 23, 2007

Rutgers Students, Faculty, and Staff:

The tragedy at Virginia Tech has caused many colleges and universities, including Rutgers, to examine their emergency communications capabilities. To improve our efforts to reach you during an emergency, Rutgers is instituting a system by which the university can send a text message to your cell phone.

I urge you to visit the secure website http://alerts.rutgers.edu to provide your cell phone information. On this secure website, you may be asked to update other emergency contact information.

This system will be another tool we can use to disseminate urgent information. It will complement methods we already use, including broadcast emails, alerts on the Rutgers website, outreach to media, and person-to-person contact. It will be used only in true emergencies, such as major weather events that force the cancellation of classes or imminent threats to the safety and security of the members of our community. It is our policy not to provide or otherwise disclose your cell phone information or other emergency contact information to third parties, except when necessary to respond to an emergency.

Please be assured that Rutgers takes matters of safety and security very seriously.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey