The University of Central Florida’s main Web site will be taken down briefly on Friday evening to test UCF’s new campus emergency Web site.

UCF’s ongoing preparations for a potential emergency on campus include ensuring that the university has a variety of communication tools to provide critical information to students, faculty, staff, parents and the public. The text-only Web site – which will be activated for the test at 7 p.m. Friday -- is one of those tools.

The test is expected to last no longer than one hour. The activation will only affect the main university Web site. Other university Web pages will continue to function as normal. Users who may need to visit those pages Friday evening are encouraged to bookmark them in advance.

During an emergency, UCF has the capability of taking down the university’s main Web site, www.ucf.edu, and replacing it with the text-only version. Because of expected high Web traffic during an emergency, the emergency Web site contains only the most important information in text format and deactivates many regular functions. This will allow more users to access the site quickly.

The emergency Web site will be used to relay important information or provide critical safety instructions to the campus community. The text-only Web site will be the primary source of information about an emergency situation, and it will be updated regularly for as long as needed.