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Students of one Florida university will be getting emails, phone calls, text messages and those on campus will hear sirens on Wednesday.
Florida Atlantic University's Director of Emergency Management says it's very important that these tests of the FAU Alert System be conducted.
"This provides us a way to make sure that all those things...the technology, the plan, the people are all working in sync. And if there's any needed corrections or areas to address we have the opportunities to do that prior to being in a real world incident."
Jaeson Weber says people near FAU's campuses in Boca Raton, Jupiter and Fort Pierce will hear the sirens around 2 p.m.
"There is a loud audible tone that lets people be aware that the message is coming. So it's both audible, meaning a sound, but then also some voice to it."
Weber says that voice will be letting students, staff and people in neighborhoods near the campuses that it is only a test.
"These systems are very common in higher education. After Virginia Tech, one of the regulations in law came out where the institutions had to have a way to notify their community. So they've been in place quite a while."
He references the mass shooting at Virginia Tech University back in 2007. While the FAU Alert System would be used during an on-campus threat, Weber says it is also used in the event of tornado or hurricane warnings effecting one of the school's campuses.
FAU will also test its toll-free emergency hotline phone number - 1-888-8FAU-OWL (8328-695). Users of the FAU Owl Ready app also will receive alerts.