University Police

Emergency Management

Emergency Procedures

Information about emergency notifications and timely warnings, communication of emergency information, and emergency response procedures.

Campus Evacuation Maps: Provides detailed evacuation information for campus buildings. (View in LIST format to find your building)

Emergency communications

The university has several means of communicating emergency information to the campus community. There is no single form of perfect communication, so it is critical that emergency information be communicated in a variety of ways to reach the greatest number of people possible.

Depending on the severity of the situation, the university may use any combination or all of the following forms of communication.

  • Otteralert Notification System: This tool is used to send emergency notifications to every registered user. If a registered user does not have a phone, the message goes to their preferred email account. All students, faculty and staff are automatically enrolled in the emergency email message alert system. Students, faculty and staff and are encouraged to sign up for emergency text messaging notifications. Emergency notifications using Otteralert have four options for methods of dissemination. When the notification system is initiated, posts to Facebook, Twitter, and all authenticated user dashboards occur simultaneously. All computers provided by the University will also receive desktop notifications. Students, faculty and staff will need to opt-out in order to stop receiving messages: csumb.edu/otteralerts.
  • Outdoor Notification System: External speakers have been placed throughout the Main Campus. In the event of an emergency, information can be broadcast over the campus via wireless system, utilizing solar power and battery backup systems.
  • Mass Email: These global email lists allow the University to send an email message to every student, staff and faculty members’ official CSUMB email account.
  • University Websites: In the event of an emergency or natural disaster on campus, the University will post emergency information on the CSUMB Home Page and/or the UPD Home Page at https://csumb.edu/ and https://csumb.edu/police, respectively.
  • Mass Voicemail: This voicemail broadcast tool can send a recorded voicemail to every voicemail box on the CSUMB phone system. When this is activated, the voicemail light will light up on phones. When users check their voicemail, they will hear a recorded message.
  • Emergency Update Hotline: In the event of an emergency, the Emergency Response Team will regularly update a message on this phone number with critical information. The number is x5044 or 831-582-5044.
  • Local Media: In the event of an emergency where cell phone towers may not be operable, a local TV station, the Campus TV Channel, and three local radio stations have agreed to broadcast emergency information for the University. These stations are: KSBW TV (Channel 8 on campus, Channel 6 on Comcast); Campus TV Channel 72 (on campus only); KAZU 90.3 FM; KWAV 96.9 FM.
  • Emergency Alert Systems: The University’s police vehicles are equipped with public address systems and can be utilized to announce information in public areas, if necessary, in an emergency.
  • Reverse 9-1-1: Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS) allows the UPD to make mass notifications to residential phone lines using the 9-1-1 system.

Emergency response procedures

Safe and effective emergency responses are generally achieved through the guidance of clear, thoughtful, and experience-based procedures.

CSUMB Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) provides detailed information regarding emergency operations.

The University Police Department has also developed resources describing the procedures for responding to a variety of on-campus incidents ranging from earthquakes to shootings:

  • Cal State Monterey Bay Emergency Action Plan: Provides detailed information on response procedures for a large variety of incidents that may occur on campus.
  • Emergency Procedures Brochure: Provides brief information on the more likely incidents to affect the campus.
  • Active Shooter Response Protocol: Provides detailed information on response to an active shooter on campus. Included are procedures for evacuations, sheltering-in-place, and lockdowns. Additional training can be accessed through SumTotal (search for Active Shooter). Visit the Active Shooter Preparedness page for more information.