By Anne Baker

Northeastern students on the emergency calling chain may have thought Brian Kenny was up all night making the rounds.

Thoughts of excitement, relief or irritation may have risen with them from deep sleep, coupled with an unanswered question about the identity of their informer.

“I was confused,” said sophomore communication studies major Lindsey Alexander. “I figured it out but the call was kind of creepy.”

Kenny, Northeastern’s vice president for marketing and communications, narrated the early-morning, pre-recorded phone message and was the signing name on the barrage of e-mails and text messages that followed. “I recorded that message about a month ago,” Kenny said. “It wasn’t a conscious decision to have me do it rather than anybody else.”

Students and faculty members received e-mails, text messages and phone calls at approximately 6 a.m. But they were not alone. Students’ emergency contacts were also notified at the same time, including those who live in western time zones. What was an early-morning call in Boston came in the middle of the night in the Pacific time zone.

“Parents fall under emergency contacts,” Kenny said. “They received that message and they were not supposed to. I would attribute that to a user error in how the data was collected for output.”

The system is still new and the accidental notification to emergency contacts is likely a result of that, he said. There are plans to make policy changes to ensure that in cases of weather notifications emergency contacts will not be contacted and students will only receive alerts via text message, Kenny said. But while many parents and students have expressed some frustration about the early call, some students said the communication service is a good idea.

“I think our parents were a little mad,” said Kaitlin Carman, a junior accounting and management information services major. “I probably wouldn’t cancel it though. It’s easier than going on a website and finding out if classes are canceled.”

Middler engineering major Matt Quadros said the call did not disturb him, although he had not spoken to his parents to get their reaction.

“I didn’t mind so much,” he said. “I have an 8 a.m. [class] anyway so I just went back to sleep.”

Students should keep in mind the notification system is new, and the administration is still in the process of adjusting to it, Kenny said. “We’re trying to get the most expeditious way to get information to students in the way that’s the least intrusive,” Kenny said.