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Emergency Alerts

UMW’s emergency alert system, called UMW Alerts for short, notifies the campus community of emergency situations, as well as weather watches and warnings.

Students, faculty and staff are automatically enrolled in UMW Alerts with contact information registered with the University, including UMW email address and cell phone number. The University resets the system with all current community members on the first day of classes for the fall semester and adds new members on the first day of spring classes. You can update your information at any time.

To verify or update your contact information online:

  1. Visit https://www.getrave.com/login/umw
  2. Log in using your university email address and password you set up for UMW Alerts. If you do not remember your UMW Alerts password, choose the forgot password and follow the directions.
  3. Register your mobile phone number(s) to receive text messages and add any additional email addresses if you wish.
  4. Add your family’s or emergency contact’s mobile phones and email addresses to your account.
  5. Make sure to save your changes.

When the University issues a notification about a potential emergency, safety hazard or concern, you will receive a message on the voice or text communication methods for which you have registered. Please confirm that you have receive the message and you will not be contacted by subsequent methods regarding that particular notification. If you do not confirm, the system will continue to attempt to reach you through all the paths for which you have registered.

UMW Alerts connects with the National Weather Service to share storm warnings and watches, so you will also receive these notices for the campus vicinity while you are subscribed.

When UMW issues an alert directly from campus, additional information may be posted to the UMW Alerts & Advisories – UMW Advisories & Alerts page. You can further customize and expand your personal emergency communication by downloading the Rave Guardian Safety app on your mobile phone. This app offers additional safety features and ways to connect with University Police or first responders.

Note that if you unsubscribe from UMW alerts, you will unsubscribe from all types of messages, weather-related and emergency communication.

If you have any questions or concerns about the UMW Alert Emergency Notification System, please send an email to UMWAlerts@umw.edu.

Students, faculty and staff who join the University after the first day of classes in a semester can also subscribe to UMW Alerts by competing the following form. Please provide your name and email address below:

Emergency Alerts

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Once you submit the information, you will receive an email invitation and web link from Christopher Cash in Emergency Management and Safety inviting you to create an account. Once the account is created, please log in to the site and follow the instructions to customize how and in what order you prefer to receive the emergency notices—by text messages, UMW email, personal email, cell phone voice mail or alternate phone voice mail. Please make sure to save your changes.

If you are seeking to create an account, but do not have a UMW email address, you will need to create a UMW Alerts account manually. If you need any assistance, please contact Emergency Systems Integrator Christopher Cash at ccash@umw.edu.