Campus Alert Archive
Stanford

Nine Words and a Phone That Wants You to Click Acknowledge

CAothertesthigh confidence
UnfoundedNo evidence of an actual threat was found. The institutional response is documented because the alert communication is identical to what would occur during a real incident.

On October 10, 2024, Stanford University conducted its annual test of the AlertSU emergency notification system at approximately 12:05 p.m. PDT. The test message — "This is a test of the Stanford AlertSU system." — was pushed by text, email, the campus website, the Public Safety site, the Stanford mobile app, and Cisco VoIP speaker phones in academic and office buildings. Recipients were asked to acknowledge the message so the university could measure delivery success.

Alerts
1
Response
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Killed
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Injured
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Institution
Stanford University
Private R1 · CA
~17,000 studentsAlertSU
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimStanford Emergency Information - 2024 Annual AlertSU Test Message46 chars
This is a test of the Stanford AlertSU system.
At nine words, the test message is deliberately minimal — it conveys only that the activation is a drill, with no protective-action content, exactly as a clean system test should.
Stanford noted that in a real emergency the message would instead contain information about the event and any necessary protective actions, drawing a clear line between a test and a live notification.
The same message was delivered across SMS, email, web, mobile app, and Cisco VoIP speaker phones, exercising every channel of the AlertSU system at once.
Context

Background

System tests are an underdocumented but essential part of campus alerting — the Clery Act requires institutions to test their emergency-notification systems at least annually and to publicize the procedures. On Thursday, October 10, 2024, at approximately 12:05 p.m. PDT, Stanford University ran its annual AlertSU test. The message read simply, "This is a test of the Stanford AlertSU system." It went out by text message and email to the Stanford community and was posted to the university emergency website, the Public Safety website, and the Stanford mobile app. The test also included the Cisco VoIP speaker phones found in many academic and office buildings, broadcasting an audio message and showing a banner on the display. Recipients were asked to acknowledge the message — an important step that let the university measure how successfully the alert reached people on each channel. The case is a clean reference example of a normal, successful system test: minimal wording, multi-channel delivery, and an acknowledgement loop to validate reach, in contrast to the failed or accidental activations documented elsewhere in this archive.
Analysis

Key Findings

Stanford's annual AlertSU test ran at approximately 12:05 p.m. PDT on October 10, 2024
The verbatim test message was just nine words: 'This is a test of the Stanford AlertSU system.'
The test exercised SMS, email, the emergency and Public Safety websites, the mobile app, and Cisco VoIP speaker phones simultaneously
An acknowledgement step let the university monitor delivery success across channels
A clean reference example of a successful annual Clery-required system test, contrasting with accidental or failed activations elsewhere in the archive
Outcome
The annual test satisfied the Clery Act's emergency-notification testing requirement. The acknowledgement step let the university monitor how successfully the message reached recipients across each channel.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    2024 Annual AlertSU Test Message - Stanford Emergency Information
    emergency.stanford.edu
  2. Official
    AlertSU FAQs - Stanford Department of Public Safety
    police.stanford.edu
Tags
system-testdrillcaliforniaalertsuannual-testclery-testmulti-channelUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion