Students to receive UPennAlerts in the summer months

Beginning on Wednesday morning, all University students will automatically receive UPennAlerts in the summer months. Up until now, most students were removed from the list of people notified for UPennAlerts after Commencement and before the first day of New Student Orientation.

Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli and Provost Vincent Price sent a University-wide email at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to announce this change.

Students will be able to go into Penn InTouch to voluntarily opt out of receiving alerts if they are away from campus. In previous years, only faculty, staff members and some students — such as resident and graduate advisors — remained on the notification list. Even faculty who were not on campus were still included on the list of people receiving alerts in the summer.

“We became aware of the need that students weren’t necessarily leaving campus and we created an interface and give them the power to opt out,” she said.

The Division of Public Safety began working with the Information Systems and Computing office last summer to update their system. The Daily Pennsylvanian previously reported about UPennAlerts not being sent to all students after a shooting over Fourth of July weekend near Kings Court English House. The shooting prompted a UPennAlert that went out to faculty and staff, but not to most students.

At the time, the DP reported that local universities such as Drexel and Temple send safety alerts to at least some students away from campus in the summer.

Rush said even before the Fourth of July weekend shooting, DPS had received requests from students remaining in the University City area to be notified of UPennAlerts.

“We started sometime in the summer and early fall when we realized there would be a need,” she added.

Students who opt out of receiving alerts during the summer months will be automatically re-enrolled on the first day of NSO.

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