Bulldog Alert system keeps students and faculty informed

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Tens of thousands of students and staff members are on Fresno State's campus every week. If an emergency happened, administrators want a way to notify everyone as soon as possible.

An active shooter, fire, or even a flood. These are the kind of things Fresno State could send an emergency text about, right to your phone. But rallying up tens of thousands of students and staff on Fresno State's campus in case of an emergency could be daunting. Now, the university's Public Safety Department can alert everyone by pressing "send."

"We have looked at text alert over the years and we finally found something that would be a good fit for our campus," said Amy Luna, Emergency Operations at Fresno State.

The new "Bulldog Alert" system uses cell phone information that students, faculty, and staff members have uploaded into the college's portal. The information is used to send a text alert in case of an emergency. "So if there's an immediate threat of danger, where lives are in danger, fire, an active shooter, anything like that where we'd need to get the message out as soon as possible-- that's the time where it would count as an immediate threat and we would need to us this notification method," said Luna.

Some students Action News talked to think the new emergency alert system will go a long way towards protecting people on campus.

"I think it's kind of safe, good thing, because everyone uses their phone now and they're all involved in technology so if something happens on campus they can get a text and see, and be aware, and be careful," said Maria Garcia, student.

Students can opt out if they choose which Mary Hernandez says she already did. "I think some people are going to think it's helpful but, me, myself, I don't find it helpful just because I mean, you could, like, get hurt or emergency anywhere really."

If there is an emergency Fresno State Public Safety will send out the alert immediately. But, depending on your carrier, it could take anywhere from seconds to several minutes before it's received.