UK students, faculty and staff will now automatically receive UK Alerts.

The UK Alert system has been in place for three and a half years and alerts the UK community about imminent threats to campus, said Christy Giles, director of the Office of Emergency Management.

Formerly, those wishing to receive UK Alerts had to create a separate login and enter their information, Giles said.

Now people in the campus community with UK e-mail accounts will automatically be put into the system to receive UK Alerts, Giles said.

Giles said people would begin receiving the e-mails Tuesday evening.

People who had created an account before with UK Alert received the first e-mails, followed by those who had never created an account, Giles said.

Giles said people who are outside the campus community and want to receive UK Alerts will not receive the e-mail, but they can still create an account.

Therese Smith, emergency management specialist, said UK initially wanted UK Alert to be an opt-out system, but technology was not up to speed.

UK’s contract with the former vendor ended this week, and Giles and Smith said the switch of vendors provided an opportunity to change the registration process to automatic.

“This was the natural transition to update,” Smith said.

Smith said emergency management examined the alert systems of UK’s benchmark schools and other Southeastern Conference schools and found the trend to be opt-out systems.

The welcome e-mails sent to UK e-mail addresses explained the new registration process.

UK students, faculty and staff can now access their UK Alert accounts through their myUK account using their standard UK ID and password.

Though students, faculty and staff sign-in through their myUK accounts, any personal information they submit to receive alerts will not be entered into the UK system because the alert system is separate.

UK Alerts are sent out when people on campus are in direct danger, like an armed robbery or a tornado warning, or when campus is experiencing major delays, like from a snow storm.

Giles said campus safety is a main concern of UK’s administration, and the new opt-out system is one step toward a safer campus.