A new UW Indoor Alert system now provides emergency audio and/or reader board notifications in almost all UW Seattle buildings, a complement to the UW Outdoor Alert speaker towers. To receive text messages and emails about emergency situations related to the UW campus you are on, sign up for UW Alert, also available on Facebook and Twitter. If you are already subscribed, check that your information is up-to-date.
The University Marketing Web Team has released an updated UW WordPress theme that now incorporates full accessibility and responsive (mobile friendly) design. Sites hosted by Marketing have already been updated; UW Webmasters who run their own WordPress installs are encouraged to download the latest version. Marketing is also working with the UW community to create a UW theme for Drupal 7. Lastly, all UW Webmasters are invited to test the new responsive UW Alert Banner on their sites before it goes live November 23.
UW instructors can find tools and resources to help them continue teaching when campus is closed, due to snow or other interruptions, with the recently updated Academic Continuity Toolkit (ACT). The ACT provides guidance on putting course materials online, communicating with students, and online methods for students to collaborate. It now includes Tegrity lecture capture, WordPress, and new UW Google Apps, reflecting the most current ways instructors can ensure that teaching and learning continue. See how you can event-proof your courses.
Emergency phones in the UW Seattle Outdoor Alert Towers are now more accessible for people in wheelchairs or with mobility challenges. The towers enable notification of the UW Seattle community during emergencies through a public broadcast system, and house a direct line to UW Police. Some towers were rotated or had their base area repaved to be more accessible, and one was relocated. UW-IT and Facilities Services partnered on the improvements.
A new online tool can help UW units be prepared to continue to operate when an unplanned interruption from a disaster happens. The UW Business, Academic and Research Continuity (BARC) Management program is piloting Husky Ready, a continuity planning tool to help units identify their critical functions, strategies, and actions to create a continuity plan for when an earthquake, fire, or critical hard drive failure strikes. (Note: Only staff in units currently involved in the pilot will have administrative rights to Husky Ready at this time.) Husky Ready is powered by Kuali Ready, the Kuali Foundation’s first Software as a Service offering for higher education. Kuali member universities collaborate on developing administrative software for higher education, and the UW is a contributing partner in the Kuali Student and Kuali Rice projects.
