The 13 speakers that the University installed this past summer to alert the greater campus outdoor area in case of an emergency were successfully tested over a three-day period at the end of last month.
The Penn Siren Outdoor System is designed to transmit voice-intelligible messages and alert tones across campus in case of emergencies.
The 13 speakers the University installed can be heard over normal street noise, but they are not designed to be heard from inside buildings.
According to Penn Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Stef Cella, the testing of the speakers required strong collaboration between DPS and the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services.
Cella wrote in an e-mail that members of both DPS and FRES "were positioned in different locations on Penn's campus ensuring the system was synchronized and calibrated for optimal performance."
The University will conduct monthly tests on the first Friday of each month at 11 a.m. beginning Oct. 2.
The sirens are the newest addition to the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System. The first phase of the system involved sending alerts to members of the Penn community via text messaging, voicemail and e-mail, and was implemented in August 2007.
The range potential for the sirens extends beyond Penn's campus and to neighboring communities. In some locations, the siren can be heard as far west as 47th Street and as far east as 23rd Street.
Although Penn is the first school in Philadelphia to have both the alert tone siren and voice intelligible messaging capability, Penn is not the first university in the U.S. to have such an alert system. Other universities that have similar systems include Loyola College, Purdue University, University of Akron, University of Memphis, U.S. Naval Academy and Vanderbilt University.
Cella said Penn researched some of these institutions before installing the Penn Siren Outdoor System.
College sophomore Graham Ober said the addition of the Penn Siren Alert System to Penn's campus was a good safety measure for the University to take.
"I think that the siren system is a great addition to the safety precautions that Penn already has in place," he added.
