It was sent at 9:05 a.m. Did you get the message?

Friday morning marked the first trial run of the Iowa State University Alert System, said ISU Police Cmdr. Gene Deisinger. The ISU Alert System is a “multi-modal” emergency system by which an emergency message, can be spread by e-mail, text message and voice messages in the case of an active shooter on campus or shots fired on campus, he said.

Deisinger said he was pleased with how the test went. He said the main of goal of the test was to “identify the strengths of the system” and the limitations of the system. He said that from the feedback received, most people got some form of messaging within a few minutes, with some getting a message within a minute.

“This morning we did the first full test of the system sending out to all the users on the Iowa State campus,” he said. “By and large, the feedback we have received so far indicates the system has worked the way it was designed to.”

The messages went out to most of the 31,000 faculty, staff and students on the ISU campus, with each of them getting some form of message.

The delivery of the message can be customized on users’ AccessPlus accounts. Users can opt to have only one type of message or no messages at all on AccessPlus.

Deisinger said administrators who can authorize use of the ISU Alert system include – President Geoffroy, Provost Hoffman, all Vice Presidents, Director of Public Safety Jerry Stewart, ISU Police Commanders Rob Bowers and himself and Dean of Students Dione Somerville.

Due to the sequential process of the system, some got e-mails first and some got text messages first, while some people may not have gotten a message for an hour, he said.

In the last week, there has been a public information drive for students and faculty to have their contact information up-to-date on AccessPlus, Deisinger said. He also indicated that in the test there were some users who may not have gotten one or more types of the messaging due to out-of-date records such as an incorrect phone number or e-mail.

John McCarroll, executive director for university relations, said the feedback he heard on the testing was “pretty positive.”

“We have not analyzed all the results, but I think the overall feeling is pretty positive,” he said. “It was the first large-scale test [of the system].”

Deisinger said he encouraged individuals who received any of the alert messages to give their opinion through a survey which can be found on the front page of AccessPlus.