To Faculty, Staff and Students,
Queen’s will be conducting upgrades of the emergency notification system (ENS) including an additional install on the roof of 355 King St West. As part of this update Queen’s will conduct a ‘live test’ on Wednesday, May 1, at 12:15 pm. The test will last about one minute.
The ENS is a Public Address system installed on pole-mounted outdoor speakers on top of Humphrey Hall, Chernoff Hall, and Stauffer Library on the main campus, near John Orr Tower on west campus, and on 355 King St West. The ENS allows Campus Security and Emergency Services to broadcast sirens and pre-recorded messages to alert the campus community who are outdoors at the time of an emergency.
The live test will help staff assess how well the alert can be heard outdoors in the normal ambient environment. The test will consist of broadcasting “Westminster Chimes” (which sounds like the United Kingdom’s Big Ben) followed by the following pre-recorded message:
“Attention: This is a test of the Queen’s emergency notification system. This is only a test. I repeat this is only a test.”
In an actual emergency, the ENS uses siren signals followed by voice instructions that alert the campus community to the emergency and, if safe to do so, to check one of the many other communications channels that may be employed in an emergency for more information and instructions.
Those channels include:
Queen’s mobile safety app SeQure
Queen’s email accounts
University phone status line: 613-533-3333
Queen’s Campus Security and Emergency Services X (Twitter) feed
For more information, including sample messages and siren tones, visit the Emergency Response Procedures website.
Campus Security and Emergency Services
Queen's University