Brown University uses the Rave Mobile Safety platform to broadcast urgent information via text, phone call, and email, a service known as BrownAlert or Brown ENS (Emergency Notification System). To ensure you receive these critical notifications as quickly and reliably as possible, please follow the configuration and troubleshooting steps outlined below.

Verify Your Contact Information

The most common reason for not receiving an alert is outdated or incorrect contact information. Depending on your affiliation with Brown, you can adjust this information via the following two methods.

For Students (Banner)

1. Log in to Self-Service Banner at selfservice.brown.edu.
2. Navigate to the Personal Information tab.
3. Continue to My Personal Information.
4. Select My Cell Phones.
   Note: Do not use the “Emergency Contact” tab for your own phone number; that information is designated for Brown contacting those close to you in the event of a personal emergency.
5. Ensure your current mobile number is listed and “BrownAlert Text Msg Opt-Out” is unchecked/says “N”.
   Note that while BrownAlert attempts to deliver SMS messages to international numbers, reliability varies significantly by country and service provider.

For Faculty and Staff (Workday)

1. Log in to Workday.
2. Visit the Personal Information app.
3. Select Contact Information. 
4. In the Home Contact Information section, ensure your cell phone number is listed correctly as “Primary Mobile (Used for Brown Alerts)”.
   If you have a work phone you would also like to enroll in alerts, ensure it is listed under Work Contact Information, with the same device type mentioned above.
5. If you need to make any changes, click Edit at the top left of the page, and be sure to click Submit when complete.

Ensure the number provided in Banner or Workday is a valid mobile device. BrownAlert cannot deliver text messages to landline numbers.

Changes made in Banner or Workday will generally not be reflected in the BrownAlert system until the following day.

If you are both a student and an employee, the information in Workday may take precedence over the information from Banner.

Ensuring Delivery of Notifications

There are several ways that delivery of messages from BrownAlert can be accidentally blocked. If you’re not receiving messages, check the following areas are configured correctly.

Verification via Rave Website

You can log in directly to the Rave website to view your contact information on file. Note that changes made in Banner or Workday will generally not be reflected in the Rave system until the following day.

1. Visit getrave.com/login/brown.
2. Log in using your Brown Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials.
3. Review the “My Account” tab to see which contact methods are currently active for your profile.
4. Here, you can confirm your phone number, and use the “TEST” button to attempt delivery of a test alert.

If your number has been unsubscribed from alerts, you will see this icon:  To resubscribe, see below.

Unsubscription from SMS

If you have ever replied “STOP” to any message from the Rave system, your number is globally unsubscribed from their service.

To resubscribe, text the word START to 226787.

Prevent Spam Filtering

Modern smartphone operating systems (iOS and Android) often include aggressive “Silence Unknown Callers” or spam filtering features that may inadvertently block emergency short codes.

Add BrownAlert to Your Contacts

To ensure your phone recognizes BrownAlert as a legitimate sender, we recommend ensuring the following sources are in your contact list.

• Phone calls will appear as +1 401-863-1000 (the main Brown University phone number).
• Email messages will be addressed from brown@email.getrave.com.
• Text messages come from the following numbers: 78015, 67283, 226787, and 22911.

You can download the .vcf file below to automatically add the SMS numbers and email address to your contacts. If you want to ensure you get emergency notifications even when your notifications are silenced, you can then configure your phone settings to always allow notifications from BrownAlert, or assign it a custom sound.

We recommend also adding the main Brown phone number as a separate contact.

Mobile Carrier Spam Filtering

In addition to your own device’s filtering, please also review your SMS filtering settings from your mobile carrier to ensure that messages are being delivered as expected from the numbers listed above.

Need further assistance?

If you have any questions, or are not receiving test alerts and would like help troubleshooting, please contact the Brown OIT Service Center.