The TCU ALERT system warned students of a tornado warning and canceled classes on Tuesday but left some students with questions about how the system worked.

Sophomore mechanical engineering major Quan Liu said he received six emails from the alert system but no phone calls or text messages.

Junior political science major David Carlton said he received six emails and eight text messages from the system but received no phone calls.

Freshman sports broadcasting and business double major Connor Paden said he received three text messages but no emails or phone calls.

Meanwhile, university spokeswoman Lisa Albert said the university’s office of communication sent out just three messages Tuesday. The discrepancy with the notifications was due to a number of reasons, partially because of students’ failure to follow instructions and partially because of technical difficulties.

Duplicate messages would have been received if students did not respond to messages, Albert said. Unless a response was given by the student, the alert system assumed that the student had not received the alert.

Emails from the alert system gave directions to students to click on a specific link to note they had received the notification. Text messages and phone calls had instructions in the message on how to reply to the alerts.

Some students did not receive phone calls or text messages because the system does not have their numbers in the database, Albert said. The alert system relies on contact information provided by students through their my.tcu.edu accounts. If a student did not have contact information, such as a phone number, in the account, that student would not have received a phone call or text message.

Some other problems were technical difficulties. Albert said certain conditions, such as the severe weather on Tuesday, could hamper cell phone reception, which could have been a reason why some students did not receive phone calls.

Carlton, who said he did not respond to the alert’s text messages or emails, said he noticed the technical difficulties when his phone would deliver text messages later to him than to his classmates. He also said he did not respond to the messages because he did not read through them.

“Once I saw the classes were canceled, I stopped reading,” he said. “I think a lot of people did the same thing.”

Paden, who did respond to the text messages he received, said the system was helpful to him and he was grateful the university had the system in place. A native of California, Paden said he had no previous experience with tornado warnings, but the system kept him updated on what was happening and helped him understand what to do.

Sophomore neuroscience major Danielle Clark said she received a total of six notifications from the system via text messages and emails. She responded to each message individually, following the directions given. She said she felt the TCU ALERT system was repetitive with the multiple platforms of notifications but still felt the system was well executed and served its purpose.

“Some people might think it’s a little annoying,” she said. “But being annoyed and safe is better than being hurt by a disaster.”