Kent State will conduct its annual campus fire safety drills Thursday as part of Campus Fire Safety Week.

The Department of Public Safety will initiate testing of its emergency mass notification system by holding two fire drills, one at 11:10 a.m. and another at 5:50 p.m. Both should last about 10 minutes, said Lt. Bill Buckbee, coordinator of emergency preparedness.

A Kent State Police dispatcher will alert students and faculty by activating a broadcasted message over the university’s public speakers in each building.

“We do this to test the technology and the procedures that are required to implement emergency plans on campus.” Buckbee said. “It also gives us the opportunity to educate the public a little bit and make them more conscious of being prepared in an emergency.”

Academic buildings will not actually be evacuated, but instead, all classroom instructors and unit supervisors are asked to review the guidelines with students and employees. This will include reviewing what to do in the case of an actual campus emergency, Buckbee said.

Members of law enforcement will be patrolling university grounds during the drills to monitor the sound level of the broadcast. He encouraged students and faculty to report areas where the broadcast is not heard.

Contact Amanda Crumm at [email protected].