From VCU Police:

VCU SIREN TESTING / WEDNESDAY DEC 5: Virginia Commonwealth University will be activating its upgraded siren system on Wed., Dec. 5 at noon as part of its monthly siren testing in 2018. This includes sirens installed on the Monroe Park and MCV Campuses and a new siren at VCU Police headquarters, located at 224 East Broad Street.
The addition of a siren at VCUPD headquarters means VCU students, faculty and staff in facilities downtown, along with residents and businesses, will hear the signal more clearly than when the sirens were only located on VCU’s campuses. In a real emergency, the sirens are activated in conjunction with VCU’s other alerting technologies, including text messages. In a real emergency, updates are posted on alert.vcu.edu.

VCU students, faculty and staff can manage their VCU Alert texting and email preferences in the myVCU portal, under the “Manage Emergency Alerts” tab. Community members can sign up for VCU Alerts to receive text messages and/or emails at: https://alert.vcu.edu/signup/index.php.