Campus-wide notifications
IU Notify
Since IU has students, staff, and faculty across nine campuses, a system that sends out messages to everyone via several different methods is necessary to ensure that everyone who needs to know about an emergency is informed as quickly as possible. In order to be prepared for an emergency situation, the IU Notify system is tested at least once per year. This ensures any issues that could occur during the notification process can be resolved prior to an emergency.
Public safety advisory
In order to alert students and employees of safety issues on or near campus, and to provide them with information to promote safety, IU has instituted a public safety advisory. Public safety advisories at IU may be issued for non-Clery Act crimes or crimes which occur outside of IU’s Clery geography, as well as other safety concerns that may not involve criminal acts. In deciding whether or not to issue a public safety advisory, campus officials examine the facts of each incident and consider when and where the incident occurred, when the incident was reported, and any other information available.
If a situation occurring on campus is determined to be an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees, IU will follow the emergency notification procedures listed in the Emergency Alerts section.
Public safety advisories that are issued for crimes will be provided to students and employees in a manner that the identity of victims remains confidential, and that will aid in the prevention of similar occurrences through the inclusion of relevant safety information. Certain details may be withheld from an advisory if the information would compromise law enforcement efforts.
Crime notice
Much like the public safety advisories, IU has a timely warning system, referred to as crime notices. Crime notices are used to promptly alert students and employees of a serious or continuing threat on or near campus, and to provide them with enough time and information to promote safety and aid in the prevention of similar crimes. Crime notices may be issued for any of the Clery Act crimes, as described in the Definitions of Crimes & Geography section of this report, that occur on campus; in certain non-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by the university; and on public property on or immediately adjacent to the campus. For a crime notice to be issued, the crime must be considered a serious or continuing threat to students or employees. For crimes reported to a pastoral or professional counselor, the university is not required to issue a crime notice.
In deciding whether or not to issue a crime notice, the campus-division of Indiana University Police Department examines the facts of each incident and considers when and where the incident occurred, when the incident was reported, and any other information available to IUPD. For example, if an assault occurs between two students who have a disagreement, there may be no ongoing threat to other university community members, and a crime notice would likely not be distributed. Crime notices are written, issued and sent by the Indiana University Public Safety Director for Compliance in consultation with other members of IU Public Safety and frequently with advice and input from the campus Notification Decision Group, or NDG. The NDG for each campus is comprised of representatives from the following: IUPD, IU Public Safety, the Office of Civil Rights Compliance, IU General Counsel, IU Student Conduct, IU Marketing and Communications and senior campus leadership. Once the decision is made to send a crime notice, the crime notice draft is reviewed by the NDG for content and accuracy prior to distribution. The Office of the President may have final review and approval for all crime notices. The issuance of a crime notice may be delayed only to collect or confirm pertinent information required to make the crime notice meaningful.
If a crime occurring on campus is determined to be an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees, IU will follow the emergency notification procedures listed in the Emergency alerts section of this report in lieu of a crime notice. Crime notices will be provided to students and employees in a manner that is timely, withholds the identity of victims as confidential, and will aid in the prevention of similar occurrences through the inclusion of relevant safety information. Certain details may be withheld from a notice if the information would compromise law enforcement efforts.
Emergency alerts
When IU receives a report of a potential emergency or other dangerous situation occurring on or imminently threatening the campus, public safety and campus officials respond and assess each incident. Upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students and/or employees, the university will immediately notify the campus community through the use of an emergency alert.
University officials authorized to send alerts via the IU Notify system will, without delay and taking into account the safety of the community, collaborate to determine the content of the notification and initiate the notification system. These officials will communicate information regarding the threat either to the campus community as a whole or to the appropriate segment of the community if the threat is limited to a particular building or segment of the population. IU will not immediately issue a notification for a confirmed emergency or dangerous situation if by doing so, in the professional judgment of IU Public Safety and campus officials, it will compromise efforts to assist a victim, contain the emergency, respond to the emergency, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.
IU’s use of emergency response and notification procedures is not necessarily limited to crimes. An incident such as a serious gas leak, tornado, hazardous materials spill, winter storm, outbreak of a serious illness, or other hazards could also warrant the use of this protocol following confirmation by the appropriate authorities that a hazardous condition exists.
University officials will use their discretion to determine the content of the alert, specific method(s) of notification, recipients of the notification, and the sending authority. The purpose of initial emergency alerts is to put the campus community on alert. Initial alerts may contain very limited information on the nature of what is happening and specific locations. The university will provide proper follow-up information as it becomes available, and as appropriate. Usually, follow-up notifications will be made using the IU Notify emergency notification system. If the incident is determined to no longer pose an immediate threat or has been conclusively resolved, a final update message will be sent.
In the context of emergency alerts, university officials as described in this section at least include representatives from the following departments:
- Public Safety
- IU Police Department,
- Emergency Management and Continuity, and
- Environmental Health and Safety,
- Dean of Students,
- Office of Civil Rights Compliance,
- Communications and Marketing,
- Senior administrative campus leaders.
Notification may be accomplished using a variety of messaging methods which may include one or more of the following:
- text messages,
- telephone calls,
- email,
- Rave Guardian app,
- social media,
- television,
- cable override,
- sirens,
- digital signage,
- website banners,
- face-to-face communications, and/or
- public address systems.
If there is a need to disseminate information outside of the campus community, it can be communicated in any of the following ways:
- Posting to the IU Protect website at https://protect.iu.edu,
- Distributed to local news agencies,
- Posting to Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IUPolice/,
- Posting on http://emergency.iu.edu,
- Posting to WebEOC (which provides selected information to surrounding public safety jurisdictions and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security),
- Posting as a web banner at https://www.indiana.eduor the impacted campus’ homepage,
- Posters and flyers in campus buildings.