UCOPAlert emergency notification system back online
September 24, 2013 •
UCOPAlert, OP’s off-hours emergency notification system, is back up and running after technical difficulties were resolved.
UCOPAlert delivers notifications to your home phone, personal cell phone or email outside normal business hours when you are not at the office but need to know about building closures, widespread public transit emergencies or other situations that may affect your work and workplace.
The system was temporarily unavailable earlier this month because of a technical issue after it launched. Risk Services has resolved the issue and reset the UCOPAlert system, which is once again available for registration. Because of the reset, all employees interested in using UCOPAlert will create a new password, whether you’ve logged in before or it’s your first time.
To create your new password and register for the alerts on your personal cell phone, home phone or email address:
- Go to the UCOPAlert webpage at http://ucal.us/UCOPAlert, and click the “Register” button.
- On the login page, click “Forgot your password?”. You will be guided through a short series of prompts to create your password. Remember: Your username is your UCOP email address (firstname.lastname@ucop.edu).
- After you create your password and log in, you can register as many phone numbers and email addresses as you want and designate which device you prefer to receive alerts first, then second, and so on.
Registering your personal contact information is entirely voluntary but strongly encouraged so you can stay abreast of emergencies that may affect your ability to work.
Emergencies may include natural disasters such as earthquakes and fires, a transportation or power outage, and demonstrations affecting UCOP locations. The alerts will include a description of the emergency, instructions on what to do and, depending on the situation, a request to confirm that you’ve received the alert and are safe.
Your personal contact information will remain confidential and will be used only for these emergency notifications. Employee information will be stored in secure government-grade data servers administered by Siemens, a global firm working with UCOP on this emergency notification system. Only select UCOP and Siemens system administrators can access these servers and solely for UCOPAlert.
To find out more about UCOPAlert, including how to register and answers to frequently asked questions, visit http://ucal.us/UCOPAlert.
Do we need to register again if we registered prior to the shutdown?
No, you don’t need to re-register. The information you previously entered is already in the system. In the future, if you would like to update your information, you can do so by clicking the “Register” button on the UCOPAlert webpage to reach the login page. Then to reset your password, click on “Forgot Your Password?” to follow the short series of prompts. Hope this helps!
I read this on the emergency alert FAQ: “Can I decide how I receive alerts? Yes. When you log into the UCOPAlert portal, you can specify whether you want to receive email, voicemail or SMS text messages — and on what devices — on the “recipient information” page.”
I specified when I registered to receive alerts as “text”, and have verified that my setting is in fact “text”. Nonetheless, I have so far received two phone call emergency alerts: One on Oct 17 at 8:11 PM, and one on Oct 22 at 6:04 AM. Can you please work with the system to ensure that people who have chosen “text” receive a text message and not a phone call? Thank you.
I was confused regarding my earlier comment. In fact, the correct way is to set your phone to “SMS” instead of “Mobile Phone”. Sorry for the confusion.
I have tried to register for this several times and all is does is ask for my e-mail address and then it says I will get an e-mail with instructions. I have never received an e-mail. What am I doing wrong?