The Johns Hopkins Emergency Alerts system is
conducting a test on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
At about 1 p.m., a text message test will be sent to
all cell phones and mobile devices registered
for JHEA users at the Homewood, Eastern, Mount Washington
and Peabody campuses.
A group of JHEA users has been recruited to report
whether and when they receive the test
message and has received instructions separately. Those not
in that group need not do anything when
they receive the test message.
The Feb. 27 message will be clearly labeled as a
test.
This test is a follow-up to one that occurred in late
November. That test uncovered some
problems, which were then resolved. There were no problems
in a subsequent JHEA test at the East
Baltimore campus. The test for Homewood, Eastern, Mount
Washington and Peabody is being repeated
to double-check that the system is working as intended.
JHEA was launched last semester to give university
security offices a fast way to alert
students, faculty and staff when a potentially
life-threatening emergency is under way.
In a real emergency, security would send a text
message to JHEA-registered phones, giving
users critical early warning on what was happening and
where. Since text messages can be no more
than 160 characters, the alert would also tell users where
to get more information, on, for instance,
the university's telephone hot line or Web site.
Members of the university community can still register
for JHEA in time for the test. Log into
the
my.johnshopkins.edu portal, then go to the myJhed tab,
click on "update your Emergency
Alert information" and provide your cell phone number.
Participants must agree to the program's terms
and conditions, which include the responsibility to pay
their mobile service provider's usual charges, if
any, for text messages received.
Complete information on how to register for JHEA is
available online at
http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/text_alert.pdf.