Safety

In the event of an emergency, call 911 and give your location (including hall, floor, and room number), the situation, and your name. Familiarize yourself with your halls’ physical address so that you can clearly communicate your exact location to responders. Immediately following the call, please notify hall staff so that they may be of additional assistance.

Eagle Alert is UNTs emergency notification system. It allows UNT to quickly contact campus community members about emergency situations affecting the safety and well-being of people on and around the UNT campus. The system sends a message (recorded voice and text) to the user's phone and an email to all actively enrolled students.  Notification will be sent for campus closure due to inclement weather, severe weather with imminent dangerous conditions affecting campus, such as tornado warnings, and health or public safety emergencies such as chemical spills, fires, or violence. Students can check and update contact information for Eagle Alert by logging in to my.unt.edu.

Information regarding building evacuation, including individual residence halls, academic buildings and the University Union, and severe weather procedures and shelter in place maps for every residence hall and campus building can be found on UNT’s Emergency Management page at http://emergency.unt.edu/site/emergency_planning/evacuation_and_shelter_maps. Residents of each hall should be specifically familiar with the emergency evacuation plans for their individual residence hall. More information about UNT's emergency preparedness and procedures can be accessed at http://emergency.unt.edu

The fire alarm sound in the residence halls is either three intermittent bursts or a siren accompanied by a voice recording. Residents will be informed of their hall’s alarm sound during the mandatory Opening Community Meetup at the beginning of each semester.

All rooms are equipped with a fire evacuation map and route. In the event of an emergency or a periodic fire drill, all residents and their guests must evacuate the building and meet at the designated assembly area. Failure to evacuate or follow staff instructions may result in disciplinary actions.

Fire Equipment

• Fire and safety equipment must function properly when it is needed; therefore, the following acts are prohibited:  
• Tampering with, playing with, or obstructing fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, sprinkler heads, pull stations, exit lights, or emergency lights.  
• Tampering with or pulling a fire alarm under false pretenses.
•  Removing smoke detector batteries or otherwise rendering a smoke detector inoperative.  
• Propping open stairwell fire doors or tampering with corridor fire doors.  
• Obstructing halls and stairwells with furniture, debris, and/or other items.

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General Fire Safety Standards

Resident Rooms

• • Extension cords in the residence halls must have a built in in-line fuse, circuit breaker, or overload protection.  
  • Do not run electrical cords under rugs, over nails or in high traffic areas.  
  • Do not staple electrical cords to walls or otherwise pierce the cord.  
  • Keep flammable objects away from heat producing items such as coffee makers.  
  • Never mix cleaning chemicals. Combining different products can create dangerous fumes or ineffective solutions.
  • Place rugs in a location that does not hinder the opening and closing of doors.  
  • Do not hang objects from sprinkler heads.  
  • Do not tamper with or disable smoke detectors.  
  • Do not store or stack items within 18” of a sprinkler head.  

Do not hang decoration/information materials on the following:

• • Doors leading to the corridor, including stairwell doors.
  • From the ceiling in the dorm rooms or corridors.
  • Decorations cannot take up more than 20% of the wall space in the rooms and corridors.

Shared Living Area  

• • Know where the fire extinguisher is and how to use it.  
  • Do not leave food being heated unattended.  

Laundry Room  

• • Remove lint from the dryer filter after every use.  
  • Do not prop laundry room doors open. 

Smoking

Residents may not ignite any substance in the residence halls, including;

• • Cigarettes
  • Cigars
  • Pipes
  • Hookahs
  • Candles
  • Incense

UNT’s Smoke-Free Campus Policy prohibits smoking anywhere on university property and limits the use of smokeless tobacco products and electronic cigarettes on the UNT campus. 

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The National Weather Service issues two types of tornado alerts: tornado watch and tornado warning. Residents should be familiar with this distinction and the course of action to follow for each.  

Tornado Watch 

A Tornado Watch indicates conditions are favorable for the development of tornadoes in the watch area.  Residents should monitor television or radio weather bulletins for details and changes in weather conditions. The residence halls will not activate the residence hall’s tornado alarm unless the watch becomes upgraded to a warning.  

Tornado Warning  

A Tornado Warning indicates that tornadic activity is imminent or already occurring in the warning area. The city of Denton outdoor sirens will sound when a tornado warning has been issued, and the residence hall alarms will sound in one long continuous alarm (in some halls students will also hear a voice with pre-recorded instructions on how to proceed). Whether the alarm is due to an actual emergency or a periodic tornado drill, residents and their guests must immediately comply with the directives given by hall staff. Residents must remain in the designated shelter area through the duration of the warning for their safety.   

City of Denton Outdoor Sirens.

Tested on the first Wednesday of each month at noon, unless there is inclement weather, the City of Denton operates 22 outdoor warning sirens that sound during severe weather and serve to alert people that are outside to take shelter. The sirens are designed to sound for a maximum of 15 minutes when the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning, or in the event of wind speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour or hail at least 2 inches in diameter.

On rare occasions when the university closes due to inclement weather or other emergency, residents will be notified by notices posted in the halls, local television and radio broadcasts, the UNT homepage, or through Eagle Alert notifications. Residence halls will remain open for residents on occasions that the University closes due to inclement weather.

General Tips for Resident Personal Safety

• Residents should keep their room doors locked at all times, including when they are in their rooms and when they leave, even for short periods of time.
•   Peepholes should be used before opening the doors to visitors.   
• Residents should get to know the other residents of their wing so that they are familiar with the people who normally pass through it.   
• Residents should report suspicious behavior to the front desk staff and/or to the UNT Police at 940-565-3003 but should never confront a suspicious individual.   
• When on campus during evening or early morning hours, students should walk with a friend or utilize campus transportation services. UNT Bus Service and E-ride information is available at https://transportation.unt.edu/campus-transit.   
• Residents must not engage in dangerous behavior that could result in injury to persons or property. (e.g., running, skateboarding, roughhousing, or throwing objects within the residence halls)  
• Residents may not engage in activity that has the potential to cause harm, injury or damage to another student, their room or their possessions, including acts perceived as “pranks” against other students.

To help ensure a safe and supportive living environment, Residence Life staff members are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether it is a facilities issue, a personal concern, or a safety-related matter, trained professional and student staff members are always on call and ready to assist. Residents can contact their hall’s designated on-call number at any time for immediate support.

Residence Life staff members also serve as Mandatory Reporters and Campus Security Authorities (CSAs). As Mandatory Reporters, they are required to report incidents of sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, stalking, retaliation, and/or other Clery crimes to ensure students receive timely and appropriate support.  As CSAs, Residence Life staff members must report certain crimes that occur on campus to the UNT Police Department, including the date, location, and type of incident. These reports are not anonymous, but information is only shared with staff who are directly involved in helping the students.