"This is a test. This is only a test."

At approximately noon on Wednesday, Nov. 7, Cornell plans to test its emergency alert system by sending voice and text messages to everyone in the campus community who has supplied emergency contact information. There also will be a test of the backup e-mail notification system to everyone on campus. The test will be timed to coincide with class changes.

In July an upgrade to the Cornell directory system was completed allowing anyone with a Cornell NetID to supply the number of a text-capable cell phone and/or a voice-only phone to be used for emergency messaging. So far, 17,297 people have signed up, including about 52 percent of students and 50 percent of non-students; 85 percent of respondents have provided text-enabled cell phone numbers. Those who have provided both a text and voice number will receive only a text message. Others will receive a voice call.

An important goal of the test, according to Richard McDaniel, vice president for risk management and public safety, is to encourage more people to provide an emergency contact number. Those who have not are urged to do so at http://www.whoiam.cornell.edu. The Web site also allows entry of the name and phone number of a person to contact in case of a personal emergency. None of the emergency contact information will be published, McDaniel emphasized.

The message on Nov. 7 will be: "This is a test of the Cornell Emergency Notification system. This is only a test." Voice calls will have a caller ID of (607) 254-4636. Text messages will have a caller ID of 55629. A mass e-mail test also will be conducted. E-mail messages will come from univ-alert@cornell.edu.

An advance mass e-mailing is planned to advise the community of the upcoming test.

Text messages can be sent much faster than voice messages, McDaniel said. "There are about 24,000 phones on campus," he explained. "If you tried to transact a voice message with every phone it could take up to four hours. We can send SMS [short message service] messages of up to 110 characters at a rate of 40,000 to 60,000 per hour." The messages are sent through a contract vendor with direct links to cell-phone service providers, allowing the messages to be sent much more rapidly than by the e-mail system ordinarily used to transmit text messages. Updates of contact data, as well as a list of e-mail addresses and reverse 911 phone numbers for campus buildings are uploaded daily to the emergency notification vendor.

Later this year the university plans to install sirens and loudspeakers at strategic locations on campus with public-address capability to broadcast a recorded or live message.