UMaine Emergency Communications System Annual Test Friday, Jan. 29

Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571

AUDIBLE SIRENS TO SOUND FOR SEVERAL MINUTES SHORTLY AFTER NOON

ORONO — The University of Maine will conduct its annual emergency communications system test on Friday Jan. 29 beginning at 12 noon.  Two outdoor sirens, which represent an integral part of the system, will sound for several minutes shortly after noon.  Those sirens are audible throughout the UMaine campus and, under certain conditions, in parts of the surrounding communities.

UMaine created a multifaceted emergency communications system in 2007.  It allows UMaine safety and communications professionals to quickly notify the community during emergency situations by using several different mechanisms to communicate vital information.

When the system is activated, several notifications occur in quick order:

– a posting on the university’s primary Web page (http://www.umaine.edu) and several other UMaine pages

– a telephone recording at 581-INFO

– a posting on First Class, the university’s email and online conferencing system

– a text message sent to those who have subscribed to UMaine’s umaine.txt system 

After those messages are created and delivered, police personnel will sound the sirens.  In the UMaine system, the siren is a signal that people on campus should seek information through the Web, telephone, text message or First Class.

Members of the UMaine community who have not yet subscribed to the umaine.txt text messaging system are encouraged to do so before Friday Jan. 29.

The University of Maine, founded in 1865, is the state’s premier public university, located in the town of Orono. It is among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from across the U.S. and more than 60 countries. It currently enrolls 12,000 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world-class scholars.  Students are offered 88 bachelor’s degree programs, 64 master’s degree programs, 25 doctoral programs and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship on its campus, with substantial efforts aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to LEED standards in new construction. For more information about the University of Maine go to http://www.umaine.edu