Timely warnings
Federal law (the Clery Act) requires a timely warning any time a reported crime is considered an ongoing threat to the campus community — not every crime, and not always immediately, but as soon as the information needed to write a useful, non-identifying warning is available. A timely warning describes the incident in general terms, the area involved, and safety guidance; it deliberately omits identifying details about the people involved. Past timely warnings are archived and available on request from Campus Safety.
How that differs from Porter Alert
Porter Alert is the university's own emergency notification system — text, email, and desktop notification for anything requiring immediate protective action, including but not limited to a Clery-triggering crime. A timely warning is a compliance-driven, after-the-fact notice about an ongoing threat and can arrive by email or as a posted notice rather than an urgent alert. In practice, the same event often produces both: a Porter Alert if you need to act right now, and a timely warning with more written detail once the immediate situation is resolved.
The daily crime log
Separately from both of the above, the Clery Act also requires a public daily crime log listing every crime reported to Campus Safety within the last 60 days, including the nature, date, time, general location, and disposition of each case — whether or not it triggered a timely warning. The most recent 60 days are available for public inspection in person during business hours; anything older is available within a couple of business days on request. The log is not the same as the Annual Security & Fire Safety Report, which is a yearly statistical summary rather than a running list of individual incidents.
Reading either one responsibly
A quiet log or a term with no timely warnings does not mean nothing happened — it means nothing met the specific legal trigger for a warning, or nothing was reported. Conversely, a cluster of similar warnings in one area is exactly the kind of pattern the system is designed to surface, and is worth taking as practical guidance (a different route at night, traveling with a friend) rather than alarm. See campus police for how to make a report in the first place.
Questions?
See the full staff & office directory for any phone number or email. Because this is a fictional parody site, addresses and phone numbers are illustrative and do not reach a real university.