Abstract: The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors affecting the user acceptance of emergency alert systems. By studying the adoption of a SMS-based alert system at a large public university in the United States, this paper explores the research question: How are different motivational factors related to the intention and behavior of using emergency alert technology? Through a mixed-methods approach, the study demonstrates a “deepening” effort in applying the technology acceptance model (TAM) to emergency response system, drawing attention to the holistic nature of motivation-behavior in technology acceptance. Results of this research show that: The concept of usefulness has multiple levels of meanings to its intended users; the ease of use is more about the users' ability to control the system behavior; and subjective norm need to be examined with relation to its originating source.