Western Michigan University has launched the registration for a new emergency communication system, WMU Alert, which is designed to place thousands of phone calls to students, faculty and staff in the event of an extreme campus emergency.

Any member of the campus community can register a phone number - cell phone, office or home phone number - to receive notification of emergency situations. If an extreme emergency is identified, the system’s mass call option will be activated, sending voice messages to all numbers registered to receive them.

The system is capable of making approximately 4,000 calls per minute. Text messaging is not part of the system because text messaging has a lower delivery priority and is not considered fitting for extreme emergencies.

Messages can be tailored to suit any emergency, and there are also several pre-recorded messages to provide clear, concise notification covering several possible situations. The phone messages will offer immediate directions for responding to the emergency identified.