Security Alerts & Emergency Response and Notification

The Dean of the College informs the college community immediately of crimes or incidents reported on or near campus that may pose a security threat.  Students, faculty, and staff will be notified via all-campus e-mails. Updates are provided to the community, as appropriate, on relevant criminal investigations.

In the event of an emergency that poses an immediate threat to the College community, students, faculty, and staff will also be notified via e-mail and cell phone/text messaging through the College Emergency Notification System (Connect-Ed).

The College also has an emergency siren notification system. There are two sirens located atop of the Science Center and Mission Park. The Siren is tested for a short duration (approx. 10-15 seconds) once a month. When the siren sounds for an extended period, i.e. longer than two minutes, the campus community should remain inside and check phone and email messages and the home page on the College website for more information. Alerts will also be posted on the CSS News & Alerts page of the Campus Safety & Security website.

The College's emergency response plan identifies the following types of emergencies or unexpected events that might occur at Williams. The list is based on prior history, frequency and probability. It is a representative list but does not include nor identify all of the 911 emergencies that could occur on campus. The types of emergencies include fire, power outages, weather related emergencies, structural damage, injuries/missing persons/fatalities, extended disruption of College services, bomb threats, rape/sexual assault, acts of violence/hate crimes, hostage or active shooter situations, civil disturbances/protests, and chemical spills/hazardous waste.

The emergency response plan is base on a team approach concept and each team has a designated team leader. The team leader is the first to be notified and will be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the team. Depending on the nature of the emergency, and base on the information received from the first responders and the primary response team, the team leader determines whether to provide partial or full response from the team. In the event of a campus-wide catastrophe, the emergency response plan will be fully activated and all teams will respond to campus. All services, support and information systems necessary during a crisis are provided by the respective teams. The College also cooperates with all local agencies that provide mutual response and additional support during any emergency on campus.