Buff Alerts is an emergency notification that gives West Texas A&M University the ability to communicate messages through text or email in case of an emergency, regardless of your location. Anyone that is signed up to Buff Alerts, which you can do easily by going onto the WT’s website and completing a brief enrollment, is expected to receive these notifications when things such as fire alarms, severe weather, campus closings, active shooters or other situations that can put one in danger occur. When the fall 2014 school year began, many students, especially on campus non-commuting students, have found Buff Alerts very helpful. You are able to know if there is a fire alarm in a building you needed to go to, if an area on campus is temporarily being put on lock down, and so much more.
“There’s a lot of good things when it comes to Buff alerts,” Kensey Plummer, Freshman Psychology major, said. “They were really decent at communicating information to us quickly and effectively, I would be sitting in my class and receive both a text message and an email about something happening on campus and giving orders to avoid that area until all was clear. That made it extremely helpful if my next class was at the Classroom Center but there was a fire alarm going off in there. I knew then to avoid that area”, Plummer said.
It is evident that many students depend on Buff Alerts as a notification system, but as the weeks progress in the semester, many have also seemed to notice delays or issues related to Buff Alerts.
“I’ve been here at WT for quite some time and always found Buff Alerts extremely helpful and convenient,” Heath Newkirk, Engineering Technology major, said. “But I have noticed how they have been very behind in delivering information to us. I will see that someone will get a notification, while others receive nothing at all,” Newkirk said.
Buff Alerts acts as a secondary notification system, for example in the event of an alarm. There are audible notification systems in buildings at WTAMU to alert occupants during evacuation. A buff alert would be sent as a second warning about the current alarm. During alarms a telecommunications operator on duty is responsible for sending  a Buff Alert. The Chief of Police or his designee can authorize a Buff Alert to be sent out for other incidents such as a severe weather, campus closings, or an active shooter.
“Buff Alerts are not sent out for fire drills, what may appear to be an actual alarm is only a fire drill. As for Buff Alert distribution, it can be sent out for a specific building, area, or to the entire campus, which could account for some notifications not making to all Buff Alert recipients. Another cause for some people receiving Buff Alerts and some not, could be due to some people not being signed up for the service,” Sergeant Zach Nethery of West Texas A&M University Police Department, said.