Emergency and Weather-Related Communications
WKU employs a variety of methods to communicate with our internal and external community during an emergency, weather-related event or any time events may cause disruptions in the normal campus routine. These include:
- Emergency text alerts - sign up to receive text alerts
- After you sign up to receive text alerts, you may also wish to download our WKU Emergency Alert contact card on your mobile device. The contact card allows you to quickly add the multiple SMS short codes used by our emergency alerting system, combining them under a single contact so that you can better recognize who they are from, and know that they are from a legitimate source.
- Outdoor warning system (voice alerts and sirens)
- Mass emails to students, faculty and staff
- WKU News
- Messages posted to the WKU website
- Messages posted to social media: WKU Police on Facebook, WKU Police on X.com and WKU Police on Instagram.
- Local news media
Note: All official communication will originate directly from WKU News or the WKU Police Department. We encourage students to be cautious with where they obtain their information during emergency situations, especially via social media.
Emergency Preparedness at WKU
At WKU, the safety and security of our students, faculty and staff is extremely important to us. We have created the WKU Emergency Preparedness Website as a place where students, faculty, staff and the community can visit to find resources related to campus safety, security, emergency preparedness and more.
WKU provides a number of ways you can find out if classes are delayed, canceled or if a campus is closed.
Weather closings/cancellations will be announced from WKU News via text alerts, campuswide emails, social media and on the WKU website. In the event of a schedule change affecting only a regional campus, information will be shared on the social media channels for that specific regional campus. -- WKU homepage, WKU News page.
Students, faculty and staff should keep safety in mind when making travel decisions and the university will work with students who can’t come to campus for weather-related reasons.
Changes in Campus Events
Weather could impact events and activities on campus. Check with event organizers for the latest information.
Follow WKU Parking & Transportation on social media @WKUPTS
Follow WKU Restaurant Group on social media @wkurg
Follow the Preston Center on social media @WKURecWell
In the event of severe storm warnings for Warren County, tune to local weather reports on TV, radio or online, follow @wkuweather, @wkupd or @NWSLouisville on Twitter, or the National Weather Service’s Louisville forecast office.
If a tornado warning is issued for Warren County, the WKU Police Department will activate WKU’s outdoor warning system and send an emergency text message to students, faculty and staff who have signed up for WKU’s emergency text alert system. To sign up or verify you are enrolled with the proper cell phone number, log into your WKU TopNet account.
Some of the links on this page may require additional software to view.