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Published: 2009.03.06 UCLA General Services' Emergency Management office has established BruinAlert to communicate official information during an emergency. Students can receive alerts via email and text message if contact information is provided. Two major enhancements have been made to the service: BruinAlert has been incorporated into URSA, giving students one location to manage this information, instead of having to visit two websites; secondly, the BruinAlert website has been modified to allow UCLA faculty and staff with valid email addresses in the UCLA Campus Directory to receive the same alerts. Together they provide a significant improvement to cross-campus emergency communication and coordination. What's New for Students
Integration with URSA incorporates this process into the general student experience, making it more accessible and easier to keep updated. They first provide the information as part of the Statement to Register (SIR). Continuing students are required to confirm their contact information four times a year. They can also modify their emergency contact information at any time from the URSA main menu. On the technical side, this is the first URSA feature built in JAVA and utilizes the CICS transaction gateway to interface with the data on the campus mainframe. This will be the foundation for the development of a student portal, an integrated web experience for students that will provide a 'one-stop shop' for students and parents. The development and implementation of this change was a joint effort between Administrative Information Systems, Student Affairs and Transportation (which manages the BruinAlert website). What's New for Staff
Faculty and staff can also sign up to receive alerts. The BruinAlert website has been reconfigured to interact with the campus' personnel/payroll database. Name and email information from the campus directory for all active faculty and staff were provided to BruinAlert. All those who wish to receive text messages as well can log on and add or change cell phone information, which will not be made available publicly. The system sends a confirming email to the listed address when changes are made.
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