Date Revised: December 25, 2023

Date Effective: September 2018

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Responsible University Officer: Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services

Policy Owner: Administrative Director

REASON FOR POLICY

1. For fires in any of the campus buildings, the automated Fire Alarm system will create a visual and audible alarm in the specific building where smoke and/or fire was detected. If it appears the fire from one building might spread to another, the Administrative Director and/or Student Life & Activities Coordinator will activate the Rave Alert (Email/Text Alert) to those that may be affected and/or will activate the Fire Alarm System in those buildings to begin evacuation.
2. For all other emergencies the Administrative Director and/or Student Life & Activities Coordinator will be the primary first responders and will evaluate and analyze the incident to determine the scope of the emergency situation and resources needed, with the assistance of other key departments at the University (Facilities, ITS, Residence Life) and emergency response resources in the community (police, fire, ems, weather service, etc.). The Administrative Director or designee will receive real-time updates from personnel responding or at the scene of any emergency related event when possible. Once the Administrative Director or designee receives that information, UW-Platteville will utilize a current list of authorized employees that can send emergency communications (see below), to determine who will send that information out to the campus community.

G. A notification will not be issued if issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities (Administrative Director and Student Life & Activities Coordinator, and local emergency services), compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.

H. An Emergency Notification will normally be distributed by any or all the methods listed below, depending on the segment of campus affected or size of the target audience required to receive the message. The Administrative Director and Student Life & Activities Coordinator, and the Communications Manager are designated to initiate one or more of the following methods:

1. A campus-wide email text message and email blast to the campus community; UW-Platteville has partnered with Rave Wireless, Inc. to provide emergency text and email messaging to the campus community. Rave’s Text and Email alert system is an “opt out” service for all students, meaning that at registration, students are automatically enrolled into the notification system and if a student chooses not to participate, that student would have to deactivate their account. For University employees, these text and email alerts are also an “opt out” service, but the University does not require that employees provide a cell phone number. Therefore, the Rave Text and Email alert system is discussed at all new employee orientations.
2. Message posted on the home page of the UW-Platteville and/or Baraboo Sauk webpage depending on the type of emergency and locations affected by the emergency.
3. Message posted through UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County’s Facebook and Twitter social media accounts;

I. Parents and the larger community can receive information pertaining to an emergency situation at the university through some or all the following systems: the UW-Platteville Baraboo Home Page, UW- Platteville Baraboo Facebook Page, and UW-Platteville Baraboo Twitter Feed, and in some cases, local news media and radio stations. The University and External Relations Division is tasked with providing the most up to date information on the University Website, Facebook, and Twitter pages.  They will receive constant updates and information from the University Emergency Operations Center.  The University and External Relations Division also has an excellent working relationship with the local area newspaper and media outlets.  These entities are encouraged to follow the University Facebook and Twitter feeds and in the event of an emergency notification, University and External Relations will be in direct contact with those organizations.  Parents and students are advised of all these emergency notification systems during New Student Registration and for students and staff, throughout the school year in the form of presentations and emails.    

J. In addition, UW- Platteville’s Rave Alert System allows students to add parents and/or any other emergency contact to the student’s account, providing those on the account access to text alerts.

K. Notification may also result in the mobilization of the Campus Emergency Plan and/or the activation of the Executive Group and/or Emergency Operations Center.

C. When the Campus becomes aware of a situation that meets the criteria for a Timely Warning, the Administrative Director or their designee will work with UW-Platteville’s Public Information Officer to disseminate the following information

1. Date and time or timeframe of the incident
2. A brief description of the incident
3. Information that will promote safety and potentially aid in the prevention of similar crimes
4. Suspect description(s) when deemed appropriate and if there is sufficient detail. The description of subject in a case will only be included in the alert if there is a sufficient amount of detail to describe the individual.
5. Police agency contact information
6. Other information as deemed appropriate by the Administrative Director or designee.

D. If the victim of the crime is a person, that person will not be identified by name in a Timely Warnings. Timely Warnings are issued as soon as the pertinent information is available to the Administrative Director or his/her designee.

F. In the event that a Timely Warning is needed, the Administrative Director and/or University Public Information Officer or designee develops the content of the Timely Warning and has the authority to authorize the distribution of Timely Warning to the community. Consideration must be given to the most appropriate means to be used to disseminate the information to the affected community. The following methods or combination of communication may be used:

1. A campus-wide text message and email blast to the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County Community;
2. Message posted on the home page of the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County website;
3. Message posted through UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County's Facebook and Twitter Social Media accounts;

G. The Campus does not issue Timely Warnings for the above listed crimes if:

1. The Administrative Director or their designee determines there is no serious or continuing threat to the safety of the UW-Platteville campus community.
2. The subject(s) is apprehended and the threat of imminent danger to members of the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk Countly's community have been mitigated by the apprehension.
3. If a report was not filed with the Campus or if the Campus was not notified of the crime in a matter that would allow the Campus to post a "timely" Timely Warning to the community. A general guideline will include a report that is filed more than 7-10 days after the date of the alleged incident may not allow the department to post a "timely" Timely Warning to the community. This type of situation will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may fall under the Emergency Notification section of this policy.

H. Issued Timely Warning are filed in the Clery folder on the network drive. Specifically, each Timely Warning is filed in the year in which it was issued, in a folder titled, “Timely Warnings & Emergency Notifications”.