Change is coming to UPennAlert, Penn’s emergency notification system. As part of a systems improvement effort, Penn is changing its mass notification system provider.

You will still view and receive alerts in the same methods—via SMS text on your cellphone, via your Penn email, and posted on the DPS website. The look will be different, and the number from which you receive the UPennAlert will change.

Contact Information

• Faculty, staff, temporary staff, and postdocs will maintain their UPennAlert contact information in their Workday profile starting August 5, 2025. Contact information will automatically be migrated from the Penn Directory to Workday; until then, make changes as needed in the Penn Directory.
• Students will continue to maintain and update their UPennAlert contact information at Path at Penn.
• UPHS employees with continue to register and update their contact information through the UPHS Phone Book. 

Alert Messaging

• After August 5, text messages received on your phone from the UPennAlert system will be sent from a different number.
• The look of the UPennAlert posting on the Public Safety website will change. The text message will link you directly to the full alert content, as always.

Testing

• The new system will be tested on August 6, 2025, at noon.
• First, you will receive an email notification in advance for awareness. Then, on August 6, you should receive an email and, if you have a cell phone registered for UPennAlert, a text message.

The Division of Public Safety website offers details on the change. Contact us with any questions or concerns.

—Division of Public Safety