Rave Mobile Safety Alert System
The Rave Mobile Safety Alert System allows us to communicate with members of the College community in case of an emergency. It is a vital component of our emergency response plan. Rave enables administrators to communicate directly with students, parents, staff and others by email, voice and text message or through push notifications via the Rave Guardian app in an emergency. Testing of the Rave system is done biannually.
Students sign up for emergency notifications by filling out the “Emergency Contact Information” form. This is a required step in the process to create a Connecticut College account. Students can update this information at any time in CamelWeb, and they are prompted to review it twice a year during their years at Conn: once in August and once in January. Due to privacy issues, students must provide their own personal information, including contacts to be notified, via Rave in case of emergency. We encourage students to download the Rave Guardian app, available via the App Store and Google Play. Among other things, the app allows users to place an emergency call and access key College contacts with the push of a button.
If you would like to receive emergency notifications via Rave, please make sure your student has your emergency contact information to enter into the system. Please discuss notification issues with your student, who can then list your contact information on the emergency form. Only your student can make changes to the contact information in the Rave form. These changes can be made at any time.
Rave Mobile Safety is a free service offered by Connecticut College. However, your wireless carrier may charge you a fee to receive messages on your device.
In what types of situations will the College use the Rave system?
This system will only be used to communicate in a time of true emergency or significant weather event. It is difficult to predict exactly what those might be, but they include situations in which the safety of our campus community is at risk, such as a fire, a tornado or an intruder.
If I get an alert that there is a crisis at the College, where can I get more information?
The College will provide a source for additional information when it is available, on alert.conncoll.edu, email and the College’s social media accounts. For example, you may be directed to the College's website, or to check your email for follow-up information. Please remember that during an emergency, the safety of our campus community members will be our primary concern, and any use of Rave will initially address that constituency.
How can I tell the difference between a crisis alert from the College and other text messages/emails I get in any given day?
Email messages will appear with the subject line “CC Alert.”
Can I opt out of the system?
The College believes it serves all of the campus community best by facilitating our communications capabilities during times of emergency. Therefore, we highly encourage participation in the Rave Mobile Safety alert system. If your student wishes to opt out of receiving emergency communications, he/she may do so by following the opt-out options on the emergency contact form.
How reliable is the system? And, what kind of guarantees is the College going to make that I will actually receive notification of an emergency?
The College has technology redundancies in place, and Rave Mobile Safety maintains two remote data centers with multiple geographically dispersed voice call centers. The centers have redundant server, power systems and failover capabilities with each other. The best way to ensure you receive an emergency notification is to provide as many different types of accurate contact information as you can, including phone, cell phone, email and text messaging information.
How frequently will the College use this system? Will the College use this system for other types of messages besides crisis alert, such as for snow cancellations?
This system will only be used to communicate in a time of true emergency or significant weather event. The College will use Rave Mobile Safety alerts to communicate campus closures to the community. All other weather-related updates will be posted at alert.conncoll.edu and on our homepage throughout the weather-related event. Look for the yellow banner on the homepage.
How fast will I get a message if there is a crisis? Is there a time difference between when an email, text message or phone message gets sent?
The College has taken a multi-layered approach to emergency communications to ensure its best efforts can be achieved in warning and informing people during an emergency. Some of the systems are internal to the College—such as email—and some of the systems are external, such as text messaging, cell phone calls, personal phone calls and personal email and app push notifications. The redundancy should result in a message reaching you, perhaps multiple times, during an emergency.
How will the privacy of my information be protected?
The College's privacy policies protect all student, staff and faculty private information, and our contract for the use of Rave Mobile Safety prohibits the company from sharing any of your private information. Additionally, users can control their location sharing with a check box when they contact a phone number using the Guardian App. At any point, users are free to enable or disable location sharing at their personal discretion.
I am the parent of a student who never seems to fill out forms! Can I fill this one out myself?
According to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the College must receive contact information directly from students. Students sign up for emergency notification when they fill out their emergency contact form (on CamelWeb, the College’s intranet); for first-year students, at Orientation. Due to privacy issues, students must provide their own personal information, including contacts to be notified via Rave in case of emergency. Please discuss notification issues with your student, who can then list your contact information on the emergency form. Only your student can make changes to the contact information in the Rave form.
How can I verify that my student has filled out the form and, if so, has done it correctly?
You will need to speak directly with your student to verify the form has been completed and to learn exactly what information your student has provided to the College. Students may update their emergency contact information at any time in CamelWeb (Connecticut College's intranet).