VT Alerts now available on several Virginia Tech Twitter accounts

14 Mar 2012

VT Alerts on Twitter — VT Alerts is one of three channels that users can follow on Twitter to receive emergency notifications, including test messages.

A new option exists for users who wish to receive messages from the VT Alerts Emergency Notification System but do not have a valid PID (a unique campus identifier) to sign up for notifications. In addition to VT Desktop Alerts, which is available for download to anyone, parents, community members, and others can follow three Twitter accounts that are affiliated with the university.

The Twitter accounts are

Twitter.com/vtalerts: Distributes emergency messages only, including when the system is being tested.
Twitter.com/vtnews: Distributes emergency messages, in addition to news and information from Virginia Tech.
Twitter.com/virginia_tech: Distributes emergency messages, along with information, pictures, and interesting facts about the university.

In addition to Twitter, posts made to the university’s VT News account automatically appear on the Virginia Tech Facebook page (facebook.com/virginiatech).

Adding the Twitter accounts provides another channel to receive the alert notifications within moments after their distribution. “It’s going to be an excellent location to point those who want to receive VT Alerts but do not have a PID,” said Michael Mulhare, director of Virginia Tech’s Office of Emergency Management.

In addition to the Twitter accounts, VT Alerts will deliver messages using some or all of these channels:

The Virginia Tech homepage (www.vt.edu)
Broadcast e-mails to all vt.edu accounts (valid for university students, staff, and faculty in six regions of the state)
Electronic message boards in classrooms
The weather/emergency hotline (540-231-6668)
Campus sirens and loudspeakers
VT Phone Alerts
VT Desktop Alerts

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.