Recommendations Following Our WolfAlert Drill

Good morning,

On Friday, Sept. 13, the Wolfpack community participated in a campuswide shelter-in-place drill to safely practice responding to an emergency event. The drill lasted 10 minutes and tested all WolfAlert notification system methods. Thank you to all who helped with the preparation and execution of a successful WolfAlert exercise. Ensuring the campus community can swiftly and strategically respond to any emergency notification is an essential component of our emergency preparedness.

NC State regularly conducts emergency exercises to test operational capabilities, and this drill highlighted ways we can improve our outreach efforts and our work with campus partners. Below are a few key takeaways from the exercise:

• Emergency Management and Mission Continuity (EMMC) has emergency postings available to print and share in buildings and offices across campus. These resources are available online, or you can request additional copies by contacting EMMC directly.
• Before and after the exercise, downloads for the On Campus app increased. The On Campus app continues to be a valuable notification tool for our partners on Centennial Campus and our campus visitors. We recommend that members of the university community download the On Campus app to help ensure they receive important notifications.
• Emergencies can happen at any time — even when you are traveling around campus. Think through what to do while on a bus or in your car to ensure you can take quick action.
• During a planned exercise, it is vital that classes, individual activities and business operations stop to ensure everyone can safely participate. Every member of the campus community should practice how to respond in an emergency event.

Emergency preparedness is our collective responsibility. We encourage you to develop an overall situational awareness for the areas you frequent on campus and understand your response options to a variety of events.

You can expect campuswide exercises to take place once a semester, in addition to the monthly tests of the WolfAlert system. NC State will continue to provide opportunities for our community to prepare and practice their responses to any emergency event.

Thank you.