Grambling State University was locked down on Friday after shots were fired on the campus following a series of fights, The News-Star, of Monroe, La., reported today. Five men were arrested in the incident, which was triggered by a brawl on Thursday in a local nightclub.

Police officers arrest men outside Bethune Hall, a women’s dormitory at Grambling State U. (Terrance Armstard, The News-Star)

A bulletin posted on Friday on the university’s Web site said that the shots had been fired into the air and that no one had been hurt.

“The GSU campus is quiet, safe, and secure,” the bulletin said.

The university activated its new emergency text-messaging notification system at 2 p.m. on Friday, but a student told the newspaper that the alert did not arrive until 5:24 p.m.

“It said, ‘Campus at Grambling State University is closed. Classes resume on Monday,’” said the student, Darryl Smith. “It didn’t say anything about a shooting.”

Colleges that use such emergency-notification systems have wrestled with how quickly they should activate them and how detailed the messages should be. —Don Troop