JOHNSON CITY (February 5, 2013) – East Tennessee State University will test its emergency notification systems on Thursday, Feb. 7. These include an outdoor siren system with five large speakers placed on the ETSU and VA Medical Center campuses, an ETSU Alert link on the ETSU home page, a public address (PA) unit in selected campus buildings, and GoldAlert, the university’s emergency text and e-mail system.

The university also uses a software tool called Alertus to display emergency messages on the monitors of all computers that are logged into the university system, and on numerous information monitors in buildings.

ETSU’s outdoor siren will sound at 9:35 a.m., beginning with a wail followed by the message: “Attention! This is a test of the ETSU Emergency Alert System. This is only a test.” A text and e-mail from GoldAlert will deliver a similar message. During this process, no action on behalf of ETSU employees and students or persons residing in the surrounding neighborhoods is required.

The mass notification systems were installed at ETSU in 2008.