Activating the Emergency Notification Plan
Whether an emergency occurs during or after normal business hours, the first contact should be to Campus Police, who will determine how and whom to notify beyond them according to the level of activity on campus. In the event of any emergency, report the location and existing conditions to:
- Demorest Campus Police: 706-939-1349, 706-939-1350 or ext. 1105
- Athens Campus Security: 706-433-1789 or 706-968-4453
Campus Police will contact senior management to decide if and when to activate the Emergency Response Team and/or Campus Emergency Notification Procedures.
Emergency Alert Plan
The Piedmont University communication approach is based on redundancy, using various methods to reach members of the college, including students, parents, alumni, visitors and the news media.
The goal is to send timely notice after being notified of an emergency situation. While other means may be used, the primary methods of alerting people include the following:
- E-Alert (Email & Text Message): Depending on the nature and location of an emergency situation, Piedmont may send an “E-Alert” message to all students, faculty and staff in the form of text message and email. Members can register to receive text messages at www.piedmont.edu/alert. (IT)
- Siren & Public Address System: An alert tone may be broadcast on campus using outdoor sirens. Constituents may be alerted to potential severe weather and/or threatening situations by a siren alert followed by recorded or live voice instructions. (Campus Police, Demorest, and Athens-Clarke County Siren System, Athens).
- Web/Alert Web Bar: In order to highlight emergency news and other alerts, Piedmont will include on its website (www.piedmont.edu) a scrolling bar at the header of the website. The scrolling alert has a character limit of 99 characters, but is clickable to view a more detailed message that has no character limit. (Web Coordinator)
- Direct Contact: Piedmont will initiate Campus Emergency Notification Call List.
- Social Media: Piedmont will post messages on its main Facebook page (@PiedmontUniversity) and on its official Twitter feed (@PiedmontGA) to reflect the proper emergency information. The Twitter feed has a maximum character limit of 140. (Web Coordinator)
- Other: Regular updates will also be provided to the news media. (PR Director)
Demorest and Athens Campus Police play an integral role in any potential emergency situation, and will maintain constant communications with the Office of the President and/or the Office of Administrative Services for the Athens Campus.
Emergency Alert Text Messages
Piedmont University makes available to our students, staff and faculty access to the E2Campus multimodal mass notification system that allows school administrators to send time-sensitive messages to mobile phones and email addresses of subscribers. These notifications would be a form of communication that delivers descriptive information about an emergency scenario such as an on-campus emergency, weather warnings or campus closings.
This is an opt-in service which allows you to decide whether you want to participate and is of no cost to you. You will be able to opt out at any point in time and there will be no SPAM texts arriving on your phone.
Please consider opting into this service so you can be notified of emergencies and thus providing a safer environment for you. The web address listed below will get you to the set-up screen where you can establish an account for SMS text notification and/or email notification:
If you have created an account in the past please be sure to reactivate it every year.