IU Notify is Indiana University's mass communication tool for alerting students, faculty, and staff to immediate dangers, such as severe weather, hostile intruders, or ongoing threats that could cause harm. The messages can be sent to cell phones (voice and text) and land-line phones, email, digital signs, and some desktop computers.
IU Notify is used to announce and provide guidance in an emergency or critical incident and to communicate relevant updates.
IU or campus administration will activate the system based on the circumstances of a particular situation. Since the university's nine campuses include nearly 100,000 students and more than 20,000 faculty and staff, a system that sends out messages to everyone via several different channels is necessary to ensure that anyone with a need-to-know is informed as quickly as possible.
To prepare for an emergency situation, IU will test the IU Notify system at least once per year. This ensures that we can resolve any issues that could occur when sending an emergency notification using contact information supplied to the university for this specific purpose by faculty, staff, and students.
The tests are in line with the requirements outlined in an amendment to the Clery Act, signed by President George W. Bush on August 15, 2008. This act, which focuses on higher education, requires all emergency response and evacuation procedures be tested on an annual basis.
Frequently Asked Questions about IU Notify
When you receive an IU Notify alert, always follow the instructions provided.
Instructions you may receive include:
avoid the area,
shelter in place,
evacuate,
or seek shelter.
Updates with additional instructions will be provided until you receive a final update.
IU's emergency notification system will be used to announce and provide guidance in an emergency or critical incident. IU Notify will also communicate relevant updates for these situations.
In general, an emergency is considered to be an ongoing situation that involves death, serious injury, or threat of death or serious injury to people. An emergency might also infer significant damage to university facilities, property, data, or significant disruption of university operations.
Test messages will be sent through IU Notify at least annually to ensure that the system is working properly.
The IU Notify messages are sent directly to current students, faculty, and staff through email, text message, and phone. If IU Notify isn't available to you, you likely have former status and are not eligible for such notifications.
Additionally, you cannot opt into text messaging for departmental cell phones. For special handling of departmental cell phones, contact the IT Support Center.
To review and update your personal IU contact information for notification in the event of an emergency:
Go to Emergency Notification Settings (IU Notify) in One.IU, and click Start.
Add, edit, or remove phone numbers to receive emergency alerts via call and/or text message. Note the following:
You cannot edit your campus phone number in the IU Notify app. If you have a private office number at which you want to receive alerts, enter it under your required campus phone number in the "Landlines" section.
You can add mobile phone numbers to either the "Cellular" or "Landlines" list, but only devices listed on the "Cellular" list can receive text messages. If you list the same number in both lists, it will be contacted twice.
Alerts will go out to all numbers listed.
Emergency messages can occur at any time.
Your IU email address will always receive alerts. Enter any additional email addresses at which you would like to be notified.
Choose your campus. You can select any additional campuses for which you'd like to receive alerts.
Read the user agreement (copied below) and check the box acknowledging that you have read and understand the risks of opting out of alert methods. Then click Save preferences.
If you choose to opt-out of any IU Notify delivery method, you increase your risk of not being notified. You will not receive alerts via those methods for any campus emergency or urgent situation, including but not limited to campus closure, class cancellation, or a specific threat to your safety, such as an active shooter. There are risks inherent in choosing to opt-out of delivery methods, including the risk that you will not receive critical communication from the university and may not have necessary information to stay safe in emergency or threatening situations. If you have any responsibilities for the welfare of staff, faculty, students, and/or visitors on campus, or supervise any such individuals on campus, it is important that you maintain multiple delivery points (i.e. cell and home phone) so you will receive necessary information in an emergency.
You will be prompted yearly to verify your contact information.
The key to successful communication during emergency situations is the accuracy and variety of contact information in the system. As such, IU is working hard to encourage everyone to verify, update, and add contact information in the IU Notify system. In an emergency, the university will send notifications all of the university phone numbers and email addresses currently on file for you. IU Notify allows for SMS text delivery to cell phone numbers and the option to receive both voice and text, text only, or voice only to those numbers.
Report the particular situation to iunotify@iu.edu and we will investigate the situation.
Yes. You can opt out of IU Notify text messages.
IU Notify opt-out acknowledgment statement: If you choose to opt-out of any IU Notify delivery method, you increase your risk of not being notified. You will not receive alerts via those methods for any campus emergency or urgent situation, including but not limited to campus closure, class cancellation, or a specific threat to your safety, such as an active shooter. There are risks inherent in choosing to opt-out of delivery methods, including the risk that you will not receive critical communication from the university and may not have necessary information to stay safe in emergency or threatening situations. If you have any responsibilities for the welfare of staff, faculty, students, and/or visitors on campus, or supervise any such individuals on campus, it is important that you maintain multiple delivery points (i.e. cell and home phone) so you will receive necessary information in an emergency.
No, the general public (including parents) cannot sign up for IU Notify. If you would like a parent or other individual to receive IU Notify messages you may add their phone number and email address into your profile.
Yes. You can subscribe for alerts to as many campuses as you wish. Visit the IU Notify page in One.IU to sign up.
Your contact information is pulled from the information contained in your student record (for students) and your Human Resources record (for faculty and staff). As a result, you will have a record for each campus appearing in your official HR or student record. For instance, if you are a full-time student at IU Southeast and an IU Online student at IU Bloomington, you will have a record for both campuses, and you will receive alerts for both campuses. You can select your preferred campus in the "Your Campus" section when you make changes to IU Notify settings.
IU Notify alerts will have the headers specific to the campus the alert is coming from, and the email address that will appear will be iunotify@alert.iu.edu.
IU-Notify alerts have been set up to bypass IU-managed spam filters but may be caught by spam filters offered by other email providers.
For text messages, all messages will contain the carrier code 226787, 67283, 77295 or 78015.
IU Notify alerts will come from the following numbers for each of the IU campuses:
IU Bloomington: 812-855-6999
IU Columbus: 812-348-7222
IU Indianapolis: 317-274-6999
IU East: 765-973-8999
IU Kokomo: 765-455-9499
IU Northwest: 219-980-7299
IU South Bend: 574-520-4999
IU Southeast: 812-941-2000
Stone Family Center for Health Sciences (Evansville): 812-909-7022
