LSUalert System

In the event of an emergency that poses significant danger to health or safety of the campus community or when an immediate action is required by the campus community to protect the community members’ safety or health, an emergency notification will be issued. The notification will be issued immediately after the university confirms that there is an emergency or dangerous situation. The university will determine an emergency situation on a case-by-case basis. The primary goal of university officials is life safety; therefore, the university may err on the side of caution to protect the campus community. Emergency notifications may include the entire campus community, a specific area of campus, or a specific population that is deemed at risk.

The only possible exception to LSU delivering such a message immediately is if issuing a notification will, in the professional judgement of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.

Emergency notifications will be delivered via LSUalert text message, an accompanying LSUalert email, and a red emergency banner on the LSU homepage, https://lsu.edu/. Depending on the nature of the emergency, some or all of the additional communication methods (listed in "Methods of Communication" may also be used.

Emergency messaging topics may include, but are not limited weather events, shelter in place activations, active threats, medical outbreaks, fires, gas leaks, and campus closures.

In compliance with the Clery Act standards, timely warnings are issued for incidents or crimes that have already occurred, particularly if they are serious crimes against people that occur on campus. These crimes may not present an immediate danger to the campus community or require action by community members, but could present an ongoing threat. LSU may send out timely warnings for any crimes that may be deemed an ongoing threat or simply to alert the campus community to any crimes in the area. Timely warnings are delivered to the LSU community within 48 business hours via the LSU Police website, https://lsu.edu/police/.

The timely warnings are issued to demonstrate LSU’s commitment to campus safety, to safety awareness, and to the Clery Act.

The Clery Act mandates that timely warnings to be sent for such crimes as robbery, burglary, sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and other serious crimes. To see a full list of crimes the require a timely warning, see the Clery Act. 

LSU contracts with a vendor that provides the university with a platform for emergency text messages. The LSU emergency text messaging system (LSUalert) is a subscription-based service that is open to all students, faculty, and staff. Participation in the text messaging system is not required but is strongly encouraged. Regular text messaging rates apply, but the university makes every effort to restrict these messages to true emergencies, or alerts that are of critical nature to the LSU community. Students, faulty, and staff can register their phones on their “myLSU” accounts by clicking “Personal Preferences,” then “Emergency Contacts.”

When an emergency text message is sent out, an accompanying LSUalert email –sent by the same service provider –will also be sent to every student, faculty and staff member. Unlike the text messaging service, the accompanying email system is not subscriber-based. Therefore, every member of the LSU community who has an email address ending in “@lsu.edu” will automatically receive the accompanying email. LSUalert emails may be sent independent of an emergency text message.

Depending on the nature of the emergency or event, LSU may also send the same language that was sent via LSUalert text message to on-campus computers that are hard-wired to the LSU network. Those computers must contain the necessary software required to receive the messages. The emergency notification will show up on the computer’s screen and will require the user to acknowledge the information by clicking a button in order to return to the screen on which they were working. The software is available to departmental IT administrators to install and configure. Departmental IT administrators can contact the LSU Information Security team at security@lsu.edu to request a copy of the software. Once the security team provides the software and registers a department, the security team will contact the departmental administrator when new versions are released.

When a LSUalert text message is sent out, that message will automatically be fed to the LSU homepage, www.lsu.edu, where the message will appear in a red banner across the top of the page. The same banner and message will also appear on any LSU webpage that is built in the university’s official web platform.

Depending on the nature of the emergency, LSU may use a box (or “tile”) on the homepage to provide details about the event. The tile is typically placed in the top left position on the homepage so that it pulls up first on mobile devices, since LSU’s website is responsive. If applicable, the tile will link to any further information that is available on the emergency.

If applicable, LSU’s mobile app will be updated with any available information on an emergency. The app may also link users back to the LSU homepage, LSU social media, or other informational items that will provide more detail.

LSU official social media accounts may be used to relay information to the campus community. The Division of Strategic Communications closely monitors the social media channels and responds to questions or comments from users on the channels. Information on social media may include the emergency notification, as well as any additional information or resources.

LSu Facebook

LSU Twitter