The University of Florida will conduct a test of its emergency notification system between 11:30 a.m. and noon Wednesday.

Messages will be sent to students, faculty and staff via text messaging, mass e-mail and a posting on the UF home page. Notes also will be posted to the UF Facebook page and Twitter accounts telling users to go to the home page for a message.

The most noticeable change during this semester’s test will be an expansion of the campus VoIP mass notification system to include offices as well as classrooms. A test message will be broadcast on the system between fourth and fifth periods at approximately 11:35 a.m. The system already broadcasts audible messages to many classrooms and selected outdoor locations, including the Plaza of the Americas, the North Lawn at the Reitz Student Union, Turlington Plaza and Broward recreation area.

Areas with Cisco VoIP telephones serviced by CNS should receive Wednesday’s audible message through the telephone’s speaker. UF is continuing to expand the VoIP notification system. In the near future, it will include all academic classrooms as well as VoIP telephones served by HealthNet and other areas.

To ensure that they will receive emergency text messages, students, faculty and staff should update their emergency contact information in MyUFL. Updates can be made at MyUFL by clicking on My Account and Update Emergency Contact. Everyone is encouraged to add the five-digit number “23177” to his or her cell phone contact list and name it “UFAlert.” This will assist in identifying future, authorized UF text messages on mobile devices.

Anyone who doesn’t receive a text message but has previously entered his or her information in MyUFL should text “SUBSCRIBE UFAlert” to 23177. Registered UF subscribers will receive a text message indicating their cell number is in the system.

The emergency text messaging system is used only in cases where a threat is confirmed and has the potential to affect the entire campus. In the event of an emergency or disaster affecting campus, the UF home page is the official source of UF emergency-related information.