Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures

RIT conducts a number of emergency management exercises per year with departments and organizations that are a part of the Critical Incident Management Program. Some of these exercises are functional in nature for individual departments, while others are collective in nature involving multiple departments. Where appropriate, local emergency response agencies (Law Enforcement, HAZMAT, Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services) are included. After-action reviews are conducted in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

In conjunction with at least one emergency management exercise each year, RIT will notify the community of the exercise and remind the community of the information included in the University's publicly available information regarding emergency response procedures.

Fire evacuation drills are conducted by the Environmental Health and Safety Department in academic, administrative and residence facilities each year.

RIT is committed to ensuring the campus community receives timely, accurate, and useful information in the event of a significant emergency or dangerous situation on campus or in the local area that poses an immediate threat to the health and safety of campus community members. RIT uses the emergency notification system (RIT Alert) to send mass notifications via text and voice to mobile phones, alert beacons, and desktop alerts. In addition, messages are posted on www.rit.edu and rit.edu/emergency-information. RIT Alert is tested annually.

Public Safety is responsible for confirming the existence of a significant emergency or dangerous situation. Once Public Safety confirms that there is, in fact, and emergency or dangerous situation that poses an immediate an immediate threat to the health or safety of some or all members of the campus community, Public Safety will issue the emergency notification using RIT Alert.

If, in the professional judgment of first responders, issuing a notification potentially compromises efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency, RIT may elect to delay issuing an emergency notification. As soon as the condition that may compromise efforts is no longer present, the University will issue the emergency notification to the campus community.

Emergency notifications will always be sent to the entire campus community due to the size of campus and the proximity of facilities on campus. Follow-up messaging will provide clarification or further information as needed.

RIT has developed templates for emergency notifications so that they can be selected, modified as needed and sent as quickly as possible to the campus community. Public Safety is responsible for selecting the appropriate template based on their understanding of the type of emergency that is occurring and requires immediate notification. In those cases where there are no pre-determined template messages in the system, the Public Safety official sending the alert will develop the most succinct message to convey the appropriate information to the community. The goal is to ensure individuals are aware of the situation and that they know the steps to take to safeguard their own personal safety and that of those in the community.

All students, staff and faculty should ensure their mobile phone number is in the RIT Alert system.

Faculty and Staff – go to myinfo.rit.edu and add in the phone numbers emergency notification information area.

Students – go to SIS and enter in the Cell/Mobile phone field of the Personal Information area.