By Rachel Aretakis

UK issued an updated alert system at the beginning of  the school year, and now it will check how effective the system is.

UK Alert will test its emergency notification system Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. All students, faculty and staff will receive an e-mail to their official UK account, and a text or voice message will go to all registered phones.

Therese Smith, Office of Emergency Management specialist, said these tests will occur semesterly, and the law requires this.

The test also comes because of the system’s new vendor, Rave Mobile Safety. The first use of the updated system occurred last Tuesday when a student reported an armed robbery.

Office of Emergency Management Director Christy Giles said the test is a good time for people to make sure their contact information is correct.

“We’ve got many, many more people in the system than we had with the previous vendor,” she said. “We want to see how that works.”

The Office of Emergency Management and Rave Mobile Safety will evaluate the results from the test and make changes if needed.

Giles said she wants people to make sure their contact information is exactly how they want it.

“I encourage individuals to go their UK account and add other means of communication,” she said.

For more information, visit (www.uky.edu/ukalert).