Campus Safety
Emergency Alerts & Campus Safety
PorterAlert sends time-critical notifications by text, call, email and campus-building speakers — here is what triggers one and how to make sure yours arrives.
PorterAlert
Every student, faculty and staff member is automatically enrolled in PorterAlert using the mobile number and email on file; there is no separate opt-in. Update your mobile number any time in the student or employee portal — a number that goes to voicemail during an active alert defeats the point of having one.
What triggers an alert
PorterAlert is reserved for an immediate threat to health or safety on or near campus: a weather warning affecting campus, a hazardous-materials incident, an active-threat situation, or a building-specific evacuation. It is not used for routine weather closings (see weather closings & snow days) or general campus announcements, which go out through ordinary email instead.
Campus police & public safety
Porter Police is a fully commissioned law enforcement agency with jurisdiction on campus property, staffed around the clock. Non-emergency calls go to the campus police non-emergency line; anything urgent goes to 911 first, which is routed to campus police automatically for on-campus locations.
Active-threat protocol
Porter uses the widely taught run-hide-fight framework: leave the area if there is a safe path out, secure yourself in a room and silence your phone if there is not, and only act directly against a threat as an absolute last resort. Building coordinators run a walkthrough of evacuation routes and shelter-in-place points with new occupants each fall.
The annual security report
Federal law requires Porter to publish crime statistics and safety-policy disclosures every year; see consumer information & required disclosures for the current report.