Unexpected text messages and phone calls might have left an entire student population concerned and confused early Friday morning.

The University’s Alert system mistakenly sent an emergency message to the student database at approximately 6:10 a.m. Within an hour the system sent another message asking subscribers to disregard the previous message.

“It was an honest mistake,” said University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson during a phone interview Friday afternoon. “They just moved a little too quickly.”

Chief Williamson sent an e-mail to the alert system database Friday morning to explain the reasons behind the erroneous messages. According to him, the message was intended for a small response team. The e-mails were meant for Hazardous Assessment Response team (HART), a sub group of emergency responders in the University’s Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.

“A call came in for a possible smoke fire,” he said. “The fire department saw what they thought were hazardous chemicals they were not identifiably marked.”

At that moment, the team was activated to determine the nature of the unmarked chemicals. After examination the situation was determined a non-emergency.

“The HART team assess the situation and advises the Fire Department,” he said.

“It actually turned out to be a ruptured steam pipe.”

He said during an urgent response, employees hit the wrong button and sent the message to the subscribers.

Despite Friday’s confusion, Williamson said the system is useful.

“It’s a pretty in-depth process. We’re fortunate enough not to make many mistakes,” he said.

Williamson also said for future reference, the team plans to continue training and review their mistakes.

“We’re going to be more repetitive in the training,” said Williamson. ” We’re just going to make them do it over and over again.”