Trial run of Emergency Notification System set for Friday

This Friday Rice’s Crisis Management Team will conduct a test of the Emergency Notification System shortly before noon.

“We do this at the start of every semester so that students, faculty and staff can confirm they’re receiving notices on the cellphone number they’ve provided as their emergency contact number,” said Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby, who is chair of the Crisis Management Team.

The trial run will include a text message and a voice message to cellphones and an email to Rice addresses.

In an email about the trial run, Kirby suggested that the Rice community add 713-348-8888 to their cellphone contacts as the Rice Crisis Management Team (CMT) so they will recognize the sender when they receive the text and phone messages.

“I can’t overstate how important it is that we have a way to communicate timely, critical information to you to protect your safety when we experience an emergency,” Kirby wrote to the Rice community.

Students, faculty and staff should update the emergency contact information in their Esther account no later than 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, to ensure that it can be added to the CMT database in time for the Sept. 5 trial run. “We use the system sparingly and only for emergencies,” Kirby noted.

To ensure the correct information is in Esther, members of the Rice community can log in to their personal account at https://esther.rice.edu/ and click on the link to the Rice University Emergency Notification System at the top of the main menu. Anyone who does not want Rice to contact them during an emergency can check the “opt out” box at the bottom of the form, but this may prevent them from getting notices intended to protect their safety.

Anyone who doesn’t know the PIN for their Esther account can use the “Forgot PIN” feature on the website; they can also send an email to people@rice.edu if they are an employee, or to registrar@rice.edu if they are a student. Faculty and staff with questions about how to fill out the emergency notification form can contact Human Resources at 713-348-2514. Students can contact the Office of the Registrar at 713-348-4999.

Anyone who has entered their emergency contact information and doesn’t receive the text messages during Friday’s test should send an email to cmtcomment@rice.edu that states their name and which messages (text, email or voice mail) they did not receive.