Campus Alert Archive
Seven Chapters,
One Archive
The archive is large and the cases repeat each other in instructive ways. These seven chapters group every case by incident genre so the patterns (the language of uncertainty, the 131-minute delay, the all-clear that comes too soon) surface where you can read them across institutions and decades.
Chapter 1
Active Shooters
The cases that rewrote the playbook.
If a single incident can be said to have created the modern campus alert, it is the Virginia Tech shooting of April 16, 2007. A 22-year-old student killed two people in West Ambler Johnston Hall at 7:15 AM. The first…
- UNMOvernight on the 2400 Block of Central: UNM's 6:35 AM Lobo Alert That the Homicide Scene at Central and Cornell Was Cleared
- UNMPickup-Game-Turned-Standoff: UNM's Timely Warning After a Player Pulls a Firearm at the Redondo Basketball Courts
- HarvardFifty Rounds at Memorial Drive: Harvard Issues Campus Advisory as State Trooper and Armed Civilian Stop Charles River Shooter
Chapter 2
Bomb Threats & Swatting
The language of uncertainty.
Bomb threats and swatting calls force a problem that active-shooter alerts never have: the threat is almost always not real, and the institution knows that statistically as it composes the message. The alerts in this…
- UOA Blocked Caller Tells the Rec-Center Staffer 'I'm Going to Shoot,' Then Hangs Up: UO's Spring-Term Swatting Hoax
- ONU"Leave Immediately. Do Not Touch Anything": Ohio Northern Empties Campus to Ada High School After Phoned Bomb Threat
- Wake ForestWake Forest Again: A Third Swatting Hits Reynolda in Finals Week
Chapter 3
Hazardous Materials & Infrastructure
When the building itself is the threat.
Gas leaks, chemical spills, infrastructure failures, and fires occupy a quieter corner of this archive (68 cases against the chapter on active shooters' 312) but they are also the genre where institutional alert…
- USFA Two-Alarm Fire Tore Through USF St. Petersburg's 80-Year-Old Marine Science Lab and Likely Destroyed Decades of Research
- MSUFinals Week Meth Lab in the Largest Academic Building on Campus: Wells Hall Evacuated Mid-Final After 'Unidentified Chemical' Alert
- UMNTwo-Alarm Fire and Explosion Rock UMN Steam Plant That Heats 94 Minneapolis Campus Buildings
Chapter 4
Severe Weather
Nature's emergencies on campus.
Weather is the genre that taught American universities how to communicate over hours and days, not seconds and minutes. The 149 cases in this chapter document tornado warnings, hurricane evacuations, severe storms,…
- BaylorA Tornado WATCH Through 1:00 AM Wednesday: Baylor's Notification System Mirrors the NWS Headline Verbatim
- UH SystemA Historic Kona Low Forced the First System-Wide UH Closure Since the Pandemic -- Every Oahu Campus Shut Down for Flash Floods
- Notre Dame1 AM in Indiana: ND Alert Wakes the Dorms for a St. Joseph County Tornado
Chapter 5
Interpersonal Violence & Sex Offenses
The timely-warning cases of everyday campus safety.
The 140 cases in this chapter all sit under one Clery Act category, the timely warning, and that legal category is the reason the chapter exists as a discrete genre. A timely warning is not the same thing as an…
- UW10:40 PM Shelter Order at Nordheim Court: UW Warns Residents to Lock Doors After a Housing Homicide
- UCSB12:39 AM Sunday Push to 26,100 Inboxes: UCSB's Clery Timely Warning for a Rape-and-Strangulation in Campus Housing
- UMNA 12:50 AM Wallet Robbery and a Cedar Avenue ATM Walk Triggered Two Crime Alerts at UMN in a Single Day
Chapter 6
Missing Persons
A distinct alert genre under HEOA 2008.
The 18 cases in this chapter are a small but distinct corner of the archive. Missing-student notifications are governed by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA), not by the Clery Act, and the legal…
- MizzouA Fraternity Spring Formal, a Nashville Bar, a Cumberland River Recovery: Mizzou's HEOA Notification for Riley Strain
- PCCThird Floor R Building, 3:50 PM: Pasadena City College's Timely Warning for an On-Campus Attempted Kidnap
- MillersvilleThe Most Complete Missing-Student Alert in Public Records: Millersville's Clery-Compliant Search for Matthew Mindler
Chapter 7
Other Emergencies
Edge cases that reveal the most.
The 180 cases in this chapter are the ones that don't fit cleanly into any of the other six categories: police activity that was not active-shooter or armed-person, building lockdowns triggered by something other than a…
- ACCOne Class in Session When Gunfire Half a Mile Away Triggered a Secure Lockdown
- FAMUA Robotics Competition Mistaken for Gunfire Triggers a 30-Minute Lockdown at the Nation's Top-Ranked Public HBCU
- ARC NatomasFour Minutes: How a High-School Lockdown Across the Parking Lot Triggered an ARC Natomas Alert