Brock officials will be co-ordinating an upgrade and test of the University’s emergency notification system this week.

The work will take place over two days (Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25) and could impact emergency communications systems in various areas around campus.

“Occupants on campus during the upgrade will experience activation of the emergency notification system at various points during the day on Thursday and Friday,” says Rick Fraser, manager of emergency management and life safety.

“We’re going to attempt to keep the interruptions to a minimum,” says Fraser. “This work will improve our ability to effectively communicate across the entire campus as well as to specific buildings.”

Thursday will consist mainly of behind-the-scenes work with little impact to the broader public. However, Friday’s tests could get loud.

Testing will include activating University-wide messaging systems as well as building-specific systems such as digital signs, PA systems, voice mail, and email and text messages.

The warning notice “Test, test,” will preface all audio and video messages related to this planned test exercise. Messages that do not include the “Test, test” warning should be treated as a real emergency and appropriate action should be taken.

Any test messages received via voice mail, text or email can be deleted.

Representatives from Campus Security, Information Technology Services and Residence Life Staff (in residence only) will be on hand during testing to respond to questions. Campus Security may also be contacted at any time during the testing at x3200.