LSUalert System
Contact Information
Office of Emergency Preparedness
225-578-1919
emergencyprep@lsu.edu
Emergencies:
LSU Police
225-578-3231
Campus Crisis Information
225-578-4636
The LSUalert System is the emergency notification system utilized by LSU to notify the campus community in a timely manner about serious emergencies, ongoing threats, or disruptions to normal campus operations. All students, faculty, and staff are registered to receive emails through the LSUalert System. To receive LSUalerts via text message, visit the LSUalerts page for instructions.
In order to reach as many members of the LSU campus community as possible, LSUalerts may be sent using multiple forms of communication. The primary forms of communication are:
- LSUalert text messages
- LSUalert emails
- Alertus desktop notifications
- LSU website (lsu.edu)
- LSU Mobile App
- LSU Official Social Media
How to Sign Up For Emergency Notifications
Students, Faculty, and Staff
In order to better communicate emergency information to the campus community, LSU has implemented the LSUalert System. The LSUalert System allows all subscribers to receive alerts, news, or other information via text message. Participation in the LSUalert System is strongly encouraged. There is no fee to subscribe to the system, but cellular rates for messages may apply.
Students, Faculty, and Staff may subscribe to the LSUalert System by following the directions below:
- Login to myLSU
- Select "Campus Community" in the left navigation bar
- Select "Emergency Text Message" from the dorp down menu
- Input cellular service providers and cell phone numbers
Parents, Family and Non-LSU Community Members
Parents, guardians, family and non-LSU community members may receive LSUalerts by using the LSU Mobile App, monitoring the LSU website, and by following LSU official social media. If you want to receive notifications via the mobile, you must allow the app to send push-notifications in order to receive a copy of LSUalerts.
Emergency Notifications and Timely Warnings
Emergency Notifications
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. 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.
Timely Warnings
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, LSU Police website.
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.
Methods of Communication
LSUalert Text Messages
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.”
LSUalert Emails
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.
Alertus Desktop Notification
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.
LSU Website
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.
LSU Mobile App
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
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Text Message Alerts
The LSUalert service sends messages to any mobile device that can receive text messages, such as mobile phones, smartphones, text pagers, and tablets. LSUalerts are automatically sent to students, faculty, and staff email accounts regardless of whether they are registered to receive text messages.
The LSUalert text messaging service can distribute text messages to all registered devices in less than five minutes. However, wireless providers may not be able to deliver messages to individual devices at the same pace.
No. The LSUalert System is not used to deliver any kind of advertising content. Mobile number will never be given out to any third party.
LSUalert text messages are only one form of communication that LSU uses to communicate with the campus community during an emergency. LSU often uses multiple forms of communication to reach as many campus community members as possible during an emergency. You can also monitor lsu.edu, your LSU email account, and LSU official social media for emergency notifications.
To update your contact information, follow these steps:
- Login to myLSU
- Select “Campus Community”
- Select “Emergency Text Messages”
- Select “edit” on the right-hand side of the page under “My Emergency Text Messaging”
- Update your mobile device phone number
- Select “Submit”
To unsubscribe from LSUalert text messages, follow these steps:
- Login to myLSU
- Select “Campus Community”
- Select “Emergency Text Messages”
- Select “edit” on the right-hand side of the page under “My Emergency Text Messaging”
- Select “Unsubscribe”
*LSU strongly suggests that all students, faculty, and staff subscribe to LSUalert text messages.
There are two common problems associated with being subscribed to the LSUalert text messages but not receiving them.
The first problem occurs within the myLSU registration. Please follow the directions of how to update your mobile device phone number to check your contact phone number and update any outdated information.
The most common issue for not receiving LSUalert text messages is when a wireless provider incorrectly treats a LSUalert as a premium message. To correct this problem, contact your provider and inform them that you are unable to receive the University’s emergency text messages and that you have confirmed that you are signed up correctly.
The LSU network works best when using the internet browsers Chrome or Firefox. Try accessing the “Emergency Text Messages” using one of those browsers. If you continue to receive an error message, contact the LSU ITS Service Desk by phone at 225-578-3375 or by email at servicedesk@lsu.edu.
Email Alerts
No. All LSU students, faculty, and staff receive LSUalert emails.
In order to reach as many campus community members as possible during an emergency, LSU uses multiple methods of communication, this includes both LSUalert text messages and emails.
Make sure your LSU email account recognizes LSUalerts as a legitimate email. If an alert goes to your junk email, right click on the email in the junk folder, select “junk”, then select “mark as Not Junk”.
Alertus Desktop Notifications
Depending on the nature of the emergency or event, LSU may also send the same language that was sent via emergency 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.
More About Emergency Communications
When you receive a LSUalert, use the information in the message to make an immediate decision about your safety. Follow any directions that are given in the message. Monitor your LSU email, the LSU website, and LSU official social media for additional information.
The University will use the LSUalert System to notify the campus community when the immediate threat has passed or that the campus community can return to operations.
For additional information or questions, please contact the LSU Office of Emergency Preparedness at emergencyprep@lsu.edu.