Alerts
Having accurate information during an emergency is critical. The university will employ a variety of methods to alert and keep the university community informed of emergency situations, as well as the impact, if any, on university operations.
Emergency notification methods
Depending on the magnitude of the emergency, a single method, or combination of different methods, may be used to let you know about an emergency.
Rave Guardian app
Get the Rave Guardian app on Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
The Rave Guardian app provides push notifications through data notifications for emergency alerts for your cell phone or mobile device. To receive an alert, you must be on a wifi network or a data plan. The App will be used to advise the concordia community during significant emergencies on campus.
Rave Guardian app also allows users to contact Campus Safety and Prevention Services by text message and to program a virtual walk-safe timer.
The Concordia emergency notification system is an automated system used to notify university staff, faculty and students of an emergency situation or significant disruption to university operations. The system functions on several platforms, placing calls to office phones, cell phones, home phones as well as sending e-mail messages to your university and personal e-mail address. See below on how to update your contact information.
The system will call you from 514-848-8800 or e-mail you from emergency.management@concordia.ca.
The system may leave a notification on your voice mail. If you were unable to attend the call from 514-848-8800, you may call back that number to hear a recorded message or view the alert via an alternate method.
As part of the University's emergency communication strategy, it is currently deploying computer pop-up alert system on university owned computers.
Students and employees are encouraged to download the Alertus software that would allow them to receive these pop-up alerts on their computers. The alerts appear as a full screen message. Once the user has read the message, and taken the appropriate action, they can simply click on the green acknowledge button to clear the message.
To download and set up the secure Alertus application:
- Go to My CU Account
- Select Alertus and then the appropriate operating system and then the appropriate client.
- If you spend all your time on a particular campus, select the appropriate campus client.
- If you are frequently moving from one campus, to another, select the mobile client which will provide pop-up alerts for both campuses.
Note: the Alertus mobile client is meant for download and installation on laptop computers. The client does not function on mobile devices. Pop-up alert messages will only function when the laptop computer is connected to the university network or wifi network.
During certain emergencies, social; media such as Twitter and Facebook are used to disseminate information.
The Concordia911 twitter feed and the emergency management Facebook page are used exclusively for emergency related information at Concordia.
In some cases, emergency information is available via a yellow banner at the top of the concordia.ca main page and/or on the concordia app.
Alerts can also appear on the emergency preparedness page.
Most large buildings at Concordia have a public address system (P.A.) as part of a building's fire alarm. The building P.A. system will be used to communicate information concerning an emergency situation to building occupants. If the fire alarm is heard, this is a signal to evacuate immediately, do not wait for the P.A. message to confirm an evacuation.
Updating your personal contact information
The emergency notification system utilizes the contact information that you have provided in your Human Resources profile. It is your responsibility to keep your office location and contact information up to date. The system will import all the contact information you choose to provide; cell phone, home phone, Concordia and personal e-mail addresses as well as your office location and telephone extension.
To validate and/or update your contact information:
1. Log in to My CU account
2. Select Personal
3. Select My HR
4. Select My Profile
5. Select Employee Information
Remember to validate your office location, office telephone extension number and E-mail address. The emergency notification system is updated daily.
If you have any questions concerning the emergency notification system, please e-mail us at emergency.management@concordia.ca
Students must use their Concordia email addresses (example@mail.concordia.ca) when prompted by the App to access the Concordia Rave Guardian site. When granted access to the Concordia site, the Concordia logo will appear and the main navigation bar will turn burgundy. If you do not have a Concordia email address, use the address you provided to Concordia in your Student Centre.
The emergency notification system utilizes the contact information that you have provided in your Student Centre. It is your responsibility to keep your contact information up to date. The system will import all the contact information you choose to provide; cell phone, home phone, Concordia and personal e-mail addresses.
To validate and/or update your contact information:
1. Log in to MyCU account
2. Click on Personal Information
3. Click on Contact Information
4. Click on the appropriate tab of the field you want to edit (ex: phone, email)
5. Click on Edit (pencil icon)
Remember to validate your cell phone numbers and E-mail addresses. The emergency notification system is updated daily.
If you have any questions concerning the emergency notification system, please e-mail us at emergency.management@concordia.ca
Emergency notification strategy
In most cases, notifications and information concerning emergencies on campus will be disseminated in a timely and consistently fashion with accurate information. This is why we encourage the community to be aware of the different emergency notification channels available to them and to review emergency procedures to be well informed and prepared when and emergency occurs on campus.
There are some emergencies however that can be a matter of life and death and do not give us the luxury of time to craft consistent messages with accurate information. A fire alarm is a good example of how building occupants receive a notification via alarm bells without being provided any details as to where the fire may be or what exactly is burning. Because it is potentially a life and death situation, the importance is alerting building occupants to the danger and getting them to safety as quickly as possible.
There are other situations like this where a serious threat to the life and safety of people on campus may present itself but the specific details as to the exact location and/or the exact nature of the threat is not immediately known.
For example, active shooter or armed intruder events are initially very chaotic and confusing. The ability of authorities to respond, understand what is happening, assess where the threats are and who is most at risk is nearly impossible within the first 30 minutes. In these cases, like a fire alarm, the emphasis must be placed on alerting those who are potentially at risk as quickly as possible. The strategy is to interrupt people caught up in their daily activities, tell them they are potentially in danger to trigger their individual survival instinct. Once triggered, the individual can figure out if they are in immediate danger and take the necessary steps to protect themselves.
This is why at Concordia, if a serious threat to the life and safety of people on campus due to an armed intruder, a very basic emergency alert will be sent to the entire campus within seconds;
CONCORDIA EMERGENCY ALERT: ARMED INTRUDER at SGW Campus – If on campus, SEEK A SECURE LOCATION immediately, If not on SGW campus, stay away and await further instructions.
The purpose of the campus alert is to advise the campus community as quickly as possible that a dangerous situation is unfolding and everyone should stop what they are doing and assess their own situation and react accordingly.(see the active shooter - armed intruder procedure)
Always keep in mind that the emergency may be occurring in your building, a neighbouring building or across campus.
If you assess that nothing is happening around and you are safe, remain where you are until you have more information as to the specific nature and location of the emergency or if your situation changes.
As soon as more information becomes available and is confirmed, subsequent emergency notification messages will be sent, providing more details such as to the exact nature and location of the emergency to help building occupants determine what course of action they should take.