SUNY Oswego is one of many State University campuses that have adopted New York Alert, an emergency messaging service offered through the State Emergency Management Office.

The system will only be used for emergencies, and only SUNY Oswego University Police and Public Affairs staff will have the ability to send emergency alerts to members of the Oswego campus community. At Oswego, alerts will include campuswide cancellation of classes because of severe winter weather.

The system allows e-mail, telephone and text messages to be sent automatically to all members of the campus community who have provided their contact information. Phone service can be traditional, voice over IP, cell or all three, depending on what recipients choose to receive.

How to sign up

Members of the campus community may choose to receive alerts or not. Students indicate their preferences through myOswego under personal information. Employees enter their contact information by logging on to the employee portal on the SUNY System Administration Web site.

If you choose to receive the alerts, you must provide at least one e-mail address. You may also provide a cell phone number and provider to receive text message alerts and a phone number, either cell or land line, to receive voice alerts. You may list up to three phone numbers for each of these options, but be aware that the automated system will attempt to contact every number that you list. We advise that you list your most-used number for text messaging and/or your most-used number for voice messages.

The SUNY New York Alert Best Practices and Usage Guide "strongly recommends" that students, faculty and staff provide non-campus e-mails and phone numbers whenever possible because using on-campus e-mail and phone numbers could slow or crash campus communication systems during an alert.