During an emergency situation which disrupts or has the potential to disrupt campus operations and services on the UNK campus, the emergency operation plan will be activated. An important part of this plan is to alert students, faculty and staff of the emergency situation and to list any precautionary steps to take if known.
UNKAlert will notify you any time the campus community is impacted by a significant emergency or dangerous situation which involves the immediate threat to the health and safety of the campus community. This could include
Serious criminal incidents
Active shooter/armed intruder
Hostage/barricade incident
Civil unrest or rioting
Suspicious package, bomb or explosives confirmation
Severe structural damage or fire
Serious health outbreaks
Biological threat
Terrorist incidents
Approaching tornado or extreme weather conditions
During an emergency, our goal is to communicate first with those most immediately impacted and then those who will be less impacted by the situation. The ability to meet this goal may be impacted by the urgency of getting the communication out and not knowing the exact physical location of individuals affected by an emergency situation.
UNKAlert will send emergency messages from UNK to devices and addresses you designate. Communication devices can be cell phones (text and voice), landline phones, and e-mail addresses. Telephone numbers and e-mail addresses for UNKAlert will be maintained from SAP for employees and MyBLUE for students. It is critical that for you to receive emergency messages from UNKAlert that your telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are kept up-to-date in SAP & MyBLUE. Employees and students may "opt in" to receive emergency messages through text messages.
Students and employees who do not wish to receive emergency messages on their personal telephones or e-mail addresses may "opt-out". (Opt-Out Form) Students and employees cannot "opt-out" of receiving UNKAlert on UNK landline telephones, UNK e-mail addresses or cell phones provided by UNK.
If you are getting UNKAlert in error or after you have left UNK, email fastrj@unk.edu or call 308-865-8911
UNKAlert will be tested at the once during the semester unless it has already been activated for a real event prior to its scheduled test. The test messages will be clearly identified so that contacts will understand the message is being received only to test the system.
The UNKAlert communication system has been expanded to enable emergency notification delivery by text messaging (SMS). Participation in UNKAlert texting is voluntary but strongly encouraged. In life-threatening situations, everyone needs to have the ability to be warned. All costs associated with receiving a text message are the responsibility of the individual receiving the message.
Students may Opt-in for text messages in MyBLUE by selecting the Phone Type of Campus Alert Text and entering a telephone number. You can opt-out from getting text messages by removing your telephone number from that field.
Employees may opt-in for text messages in Firefly Employee Self Service by the following path:
About Me (Personal Information)->Addresses->Permanent->Edit (pencil icon)->Enter telephone number in first blank field->Select Phone Type by finding “TEXT” in the drop down list.
You can opt-out by removing the telephone number from that field.
Updating MyBLUE Information
Landline telephone numbers, cell telephone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses can be updated by using MyBLUE. Updates to telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will also affect the use of this information by other University departments such as Student Records & Registration.
Telephone numbers in MyBLUE will be used as follows by UNKAlert
Cell – Student’s cell telephone number. This telephone number will be used as the primary telephone number used for UNKAlert. If there is no cell telephone number, the Current/Local telephone number will become the primary telephone number.
Current/Local – This field can be used for another student’s telephone number or for other telephone numbers of other individuals such as a spouse or parent that the student would also like to receive messages from UNKAlert
Permanent – Additional field that the student can use for an additional telephone number of other individuals such as a spouse or parent that the student would also like to receive messages from UNKAlert
You can opt-in for text messages by entering your telephone number in the "Campus Alert Text" phone type.
Email addresses in MyBLUE will be used as follows by UNKAlert
Campus email – Student’s UNK email address. UNKAlert will default this e-mail address to the student’s UNK email address.
Personal – Student’s personal email address. Students wanting to receive UNKAlert E-mails by both their UNK email and personal email addresses must enter their personal e-mail address in this field.
Updating SAP Information
Updating employee information in SAP using ESS: Landline telephone numbers, cell telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses can be updated by using ESS. ESS can be accessed through the Faculty/Staff page under "Resources" select Firefly.
Step by step directions to use firefly to update telephone numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses:
Click on Employee Self Service (ESS) tile at the top of the page.
Go to the "About Me (Personal Information)" section in the upper left part of the page.
You can update information for permanent, current and emergency addresses. Information for UNK Alert will be pulled from the information in permanent address. Both current and permanent address information should be updated when a change is made.
Click on edit (pencil icon) under permanent address.
The first telephone number should be the number you wish to be called for all notifications. This can be a landline or cell telephone number. In emergency situations, all numbers will be called until a contact is made. In non-emergency situations only the first number will be called. The first number is the telephone number that will be listed in the UNK telephone directory if you include a personal telephone number as directory information.
You can add up to four more telephone numbers as contact numbers for emergencies. The numbers can be yours or of another person such as a spouse. The type of number for telephones 2 & 3 can be designated via the drop down box.
Once you have entered all the telephone numbers, click on save.
Review the information to be sure the telephone numbers are designated correctly.
You can opt-in for text messages by entering your telephone number in an available blank field and selecting “TEXT” as a phone type.
If all the information is correct, click on save.
If you use another number other than your desk telephone number for your published work number you can set your desk telephone number as an alternate work number so that you will receive emergency calls directly to your desk telephone.
Please note that any changes to your work telephone numbers and work address will need to be made through a Personal Data Change form located in SAPPHIRE.