First MU Alert of school year sent out Monday evening as students return to campus
Haley Swaino
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri sent out its first MU Alert to students since move-in began for the 2025-26 school year on Monday night.
The alert said officers were responding to a shots-fired call in the 900 block of South Providence Road. The incident ended up being a vehicle backfiring on MU’s Columbia campus, according to previous reporting.
Some MU students began moving onto campus on Saturday, with a majority expected to move in on Wednesday and Thursday, according to information on the university’s website.
First-year student Kylin Woodruff moved in Saturday and said she was alone in her dorm when she got the MU Alert on Monday.
“I was in my dorm, just eating dinner and everything, and I just got a text on my phone that there were gunshots apparently reported,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff had just moved four hours away from home and said her roommate had not moved in yet when she saw the ‘shots-fired’ message come across her phone.
“Honestly, it kind of scared me,” Woodruff said. “Lately these past couple days, I’ve been hearing cop sirens or ambulance sirens practically daily. So I kind of figured something was going on.”
MU Alerts are sent out during incidents that have the potential to impact the entire campus, according to the information on the university’s website. Active threats that prompt the university to send an alert range from weather-related emergencies to possible criminal activity.
The university defines a threat to campus as “any events, man-made or natural, that threaten the safety and security of our students, faculty and staff.”
After each message is sent, the university says it reviews its policies and procedures to decide if any changes should be made in handling that type of situation in the future.
Woodruff said getting that MU Alert on Monday was scary, but made her feel protected and informed. She said she signed up for the alerts to have piece of mind on campus.
“I’m glad they have the alert system because who knows, someone could have been out there and like heading towards that direction and that could probably could have really saved somebody,” Woodruff said.
In the case of an emergency, the university alert tool will recommend an action to take. MU says not to contact MUPD, rather follow directions given in the alert, as dispatchers need to be available to respond to the unfolding emergency.
Follow-up MU Alerts will continue to be sent out as soon as new information becomes available. An “All Clear” message will be sent once campus is back to operating under normal conditions.
MU leaders say that because studies show over-notification causes people to ignore warning messages, they restrict campus-wide alerts to incidents that pose an immediate threat to campus.
The MU Alert system is tested several times each year, according to the university’s online emergency information center. The university says it often does drills to assess existing plans and policies, while also testing the emergency alert system. Every semester, all members of the campus community participate in these drills.
The current system is not able to send alerts to separate individuals or groups based on phone numbers of locations, though MU says it continues to investigate this possibility.
To sign-up to receive MU Alerts, students can register through their myZou accounts. Faculty and staff can register through their myHR accounts. Parents, community members and others who do not have an account with the university can sign up for alerts in two ways.