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MISSOULA - University of Montana student Rebecca Fyffe received an urgent email from the college Tuesday afternoon.

"It was very vague," she said. "I mean, they didn't give a whole lot of information. It just said there was a suspicious email and that police were investigating. I didn't really think much of it."

The email was part of the University of Montana's emergency response system to notify campus staff and students about an evacuation at the law school after a suspicious email.

University of Montana vice president Jim Foley said the school's public safety department worked with local law enforcement to decide how to tell the campus community.

"It was determined to send out a text message after that email was reported within about 20 to 30 minutes was my understanding," Foley said.

But Fyffe didn't get an email until about an hour and a half later at 12:53 p.m., leaving her wondering about the system.

"I would've had no idea whatsoever that there was something going on and especially for something, a possible gunman. That's scary," she said.

But Foley said, given the actual level of threat in this situation, the notification process served its purpose.

"The level of threat determined by public safety office and law enforcement to the level of threat was just notify people on campus," he said. "We think the process worked. But we're certainly willing to evaluate it as we go forward."

While Fyffe was not on campus during Tuesday's situation, she hopes if something major did happen the alert system would tell her in time.

"I think if it were something of a more dire emergency that they knew there was a gunman or that something was seen, not just an email threat. If they didn't send out the text before they probably would've done it this time," she said.

Foley said several campus representatives will be meeting to talk about this system to see where improvements can be made. He said that might include finding a way to get the word out to people on campus who might not be students or staff.