UPDATE on the CUNY Alert Emergency Notification System

On 2/1/08 and on 2/6/08, you received invitations to sign up for CUNY Alert, a new, secure, web-based emergency notification system that allows students, staff and faculty to receive text or voice notifications of campus emergencies or weather related closings. In order to sign up for CUNY Alert you must first register with the CUNY portal. Some members of the Graduate Center community voiced their concern about registering for the portal because it requires the entering of a social security number. Brian Cohen, CUNY’s Chief Information Officer, stated that the entering of the social security number is a one time verification step used to validate one’s position in the University. The data is encrypted and is no longer stored or used again after authentication. He assured me that the process is safe.

Others, who had already registered with the CUNY portal, reported having some difficulty registering for CUNY Alert. Please remember that your CUNY portal password may not be the same as your Graduate Center e-mail password. You will get a message that the authentication failed if you enter the wrong password. You can then click the “Forgot your Password” icon and CUNY will send you a new one. You can contact the Office of Information Technology Help Desk at Helpdesk@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-7300 if you still have problems registering.

I once again encourage everyone to sign up for this free service as it will be an important part of the Graduate Center’s Emergency Operations Plan. I also ask that Executive Officers, Directors of Centers and Institutes, Heads of Offices and Assistant Program Officers forward this message to people in the departments who do not regularly use their Graduate Center e-mail address.

You can sign up for CUNY Alert at www.cuny.edu/alert and you will be able to select the best way to get messages: cell phone, home phone, e-mail, instant message, or any combination of these. The process takes only a few minutes.

The Graduate Center and the Office of Security & Public Safety are committed to ensuring the security, health and safety of the GC community. CUNY Alert is one of many tools that we will use to accomplish this goal. Please call me at 212-817-7761 if you have any questions concerning CUNY Alert or any other security and safety issues. Thank you.

John Flaherty
Director of Security & Public Safety
365 Fifth Avenue - Room 9117.01
New York, N.Y. 10016-4309
Ph 212-817-7761
Fax 212-817-1643
jflaherty@gc.cuny.edu