The alert comes mere days before the third anniversary of the MSU campus shooting on Feb. 13, 2023. 

The first text message was delivered at 10:52 a.m., followed by a series of phone calls and emails. Sirens across campus were also activated by the department.

Roughly one minute after the initial notification, a second message was sent, saying the emergency notification was delivered in “error” and to “please disregard” it. The second message was posted to the police department's social media pages.

MSU and the Department of Police and Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment.

The rapid correction led to some contradictory signals, with students receiving phone calls and emails alerting them for minutes even after the correction was sent out. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the messages contained discrepancies between each other.

For some students and parents, the word “drill” was omitted from the initial alert they received, causing them to fear an actual active violence incident was occurring. That notification plainly read, “Emergency! Active violence incident at the MSU East Lansing Campus. Avoid the area”.

It does not appear as if the drill was previously scheduled. MSU tests its campus-wide alert system once a semester, with the most recent test occurring on Jan. 21.

MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and Chief of Police Mike Yankowski apologized for the error Tuesday afternoon, writing in a statement that the alert was accidentally sent during a routine system test by MSU's Security Operations Center.

“As part of standard protocol, the SOC performs a required monthly test to evaluate the university’s emergency notification tools in a designated test environment,” the statement read. “During one of these routine checks, a message was accidentally sent through the live alerting system. This was human error. We are confident that our alert system is in no way compromised.”

“We understand how emotionally activating this incident might have been for members of our university community, and we sincerely apologize for the error,” the statement continued.

Human Development and Family Studies sophomore Reyna Atkinson, who was in her dorm at Rather Hall when she received the notification, said the initial notification she got did not make it clear that the emergency alert was not a drill. 

“This was an unacceptable mistake to make,” Atkinson said.  

Samantha Smith, a current graduate student who was enrolled at MSU during the 2023 campus shooting, said the notification bore resemblance to the one she received during the shooting.

“It felt like a sick joke,” Smith said. “It was so traumatic for me because a concern that I've had in the back of my mind is, if I ever experience it again, I will live through another mass shooting — maybe not live through one.” 

Professor of Journalism Rick Epps has taught graphic design at MSU for 10 years, but wasn’t on campus during the 2023 shooting.

That night, he acted as a parent of a student in the Broad College of Business; today, Epps acted as a professor.

Epps received the alert in a classroom of 15 students in the Communication Arts and Sciences Building. He said the alert was a reminder of the shooting three years ago.

“It's the reminder that everything has to stop. I spend however much time planning today's class, everything stops when I see that,” Epps said. “We're all scarred by what's happened here. We all remember it. We never forget it. As a professor, it's my job to stop being a design professor and remember that the safety of everybody in this room is all that matters.”

Epps said he was sad the error took place, but was glad that somebody was thinking about safety at MSU.

“I would hope somewhere in the university, there are preparations to practice. What are our emergency measures, active shooter measures?” Epps said. “You never know what could happen in a moment. Anniversaries click in people's minds for things, for better or for worse. So I hope that's why it happened. I hope somebody was practicing as a dry run for Feb. 13 safety preparations.”

Art history senior Willa Brainard was attending class in Berkey Hall when she received the alert notification. At first, only the students showed any reaction to the barrage of alert notifications as history professor Shayan Rajani continued to lecture. Brainard felt panic as she read the message, then confusion.

The alert reminded her of the email sent by MSU during the campus shooting three years ago, Brainard said. While the school has made various improvements to its alert systems, Brainard said the lack of additional information reminded her of the confusion on campus during the shooting.

“Even though it was a drill, it just reminded you of that,” she said.

In the classroom, Rajani turned to look at his slides, where the alert notification was now emblazoned in the corner of the screen. He went to lock the door. 

Despite the message noting that the alert was a drill, Rajani felt “alarmed, but I was able to recall some, most of my training, and so my process was to lock those doors,” he said. 

Still, all Brainard could think was, “Oh, I'm really not safe on this campus anywhere.”

Guskiewicz and Yankowski wrote in their statement that campus police will be implementing additional safeguard to ensure test messages are not sent through live channels, conduct a review of how alerts are authorized and look at potentially adjusting the software the department uses to issue alerts.