West Virginia University officials are reminding students and employees to sign up for WVU Alert.

WVU Alert primarily uses text messages to alert the campus community to time-sensitive information from authorized campus officials, including weather-related closings and other emergencies, according to University Police Chief Bob Roberts.

For example, in recent days the system has been used to notify students and others about class cancellations and University operations during the severe winter weather.

Besides the participant, the system also allows users to add one additional cell phone and e-mail address.

To sign up for WVU Alert, faculty and staff should go to http://alert.wvu.edu; students can sign onto Mountaineer Information Xpress (MIX) and click on the emergency alert system icon.

The instructions are self-explanatory; however, users should have their mobile phones handy in order to verify the access code once confirmation comes through. Users who have a Blackberry will receive their validation code via the phone’s e-mail.

The system is registered with every cell phone carrier in the country and takes only seconds to activate once the registration is complete. Accounts can also be customized so that alerts can be received via e-mail mobile phone (via SMS text message), Blackberry, wireless PDA , text pager, school e-mail and personal e-mail accounts, personal portal (My Yahoo, iGoogle or My AOL page) or RSS reader. Depending on the person’s personal cell phone carrier, there may be a minimal fee from the carrier to receive text messages, but there is no charge from WVU.

WVU Alert FAQs and definitions can be found at http://alert.wvu.edu.

In an emergency, the WVU Alert will direct users to http://www.wvu.edu for detailed information about the situation.

-WVU-

cd/02/10/10

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