CU tests alert system

The University of Colorado is testing their text message alert system today.

Students, faculty and staff receive text messages notifying them in real-time about campus closures, extreme weather and other emergencies.

There are currently 18,000 people in the CU community that have registered for the alerts via their mobile phones. Anyone with a colorado.edu e-mail address may register at no cost.

One student, Austin Wood, said he was notified via text message during the Four Mile Fire in September.

"It was great to have," Wood said. "I didn't know about [the fire], but when I woke up, I had the message."

The RAVE system allows the CU-Boulder administration to send a short message of 132 characters or less to cell phones in the database. According to the University, cell phone numbers that have been registered for the system will not be used for other purposes besides alerting of emergencies.

Even though it has been a popular method of emergency notifying, some students have not heard of the alert system.

"I haven't even heard about it," said Megan Piliktus. "I think that it's a good idea to have."

The system will be tested at noon on Thursday. Students, faculty and staff can register at any time at http://www.colorado.edu/alerts.