NIU was re-certified as StormReady by the National Weather Service to show the university’s prepared for potential weather emergencies.

The re-certification March 25 signifies students and faculty are protected by the university through its methods of receiving and disseminating emergency weather information from the National Weather Service.

NIU meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste said NIU was first certified StormReady in spring 2002. It was the first university in the United States to receive StormReady certification.

Mike Bardou, National Weather Service meteorologist, said campuses need to be storm ready especially considering the activities and events that take place outside. He said there are 147 universities that are StormReady certified, 10 of which are in Illinois.

“Having a campus where you have a large population of students … it’s very important to monitor the weather and to be prepared to deal with it if you have to,” Bardou said.

Bardou said there are many requirements universities need in order to be certified StormReady. Bardou said the university needs to have a means of receiving and communicating weather information effectively, securing a severe weather preparedness plan and arranging preparedness activities to educate campuses on how to deal with weather conflicts.

Sebenste said students can benefit immensely from being part of a StormReady university.

“We are able to receive the emergency weather information quickly so that students who have signed up with the NIU alerting system can get the emergency messages right away,” Sebenste said.

Students can also access weather information through the NIU Weather main page, weather.admin.niu.edu, as well as the campus cable system, Sebenste said.

Leena Philip, sophomore speech therapy student, said she receives NIU alert system text messages and agrees with Sebenste that the NIU alert system is helpful and protects students from possible danger.

“It gets us ready for what’s coming,” Philip said. “Some people don’t realize how bad it is outside until they get warning texts.”