Emergency Notification Systems and Emergency Preparedness Plans

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of emergency preparedness in homes, workplaces, colleges and universities, and communities. Institutions of higher education across the country are fine-tuning and test-driving their emergency preparedness plans, testing their emergency notification systems, and conducting awareness sessions for students, faculty, and staff. They are also exploring how they can better leverage information and communications technologies to help them address every phase of emergency management: prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The University of Maryland is taking a comprehensive approach to protecting its human, physical, and cyber assets and is exploring the use of social networking to enhance communication with stakeholders.

Saint Peter’s College responded to a bomb threat and evacuated the campus safely and efficiently thanks to close integration of human systems with IT.

Emergency communications systems are no longer an optional service. Many campuses are exploring how information technologies might play a critical role in creating and managing these campus-wide systems for emergency and other communications. Who must be involved in the planning and management of these systems? What policies are needed? What is happening on your campus? Share your experiences and questions with your colleagues as together we sketch out a roadmap to providing this important service.

(Wally) Czerniak was attending a conference in Arizona where he was learning, among other things, about emergency-notification systems that can send text messages to cellphones - a method that a growing number of colleges have set up since the shootings last spring at Virginia Tech. But Mr. Czerniak still isn't sure whether such a system would have done much good in keeping people on campus updated as the crisis unfolded if it had been in place at Northern Illinois.

When an incident requiring emergency communications evolves on campus there must be multiple levels to a response. Furthermore, the response required transcends the question of adequate emergency communications technologies and systems. Key advance preparation items include ensuring that the correct technological services have been deployed, that personnel have proper training, and that planning is in place so that appropriate internal and external agencies all work together in concert to address and resolve the incident as effectively as possible. The panel will discuss emergency communications management, including technologies and systems, and planning needs for all of the relevant areas.

"Students arriving on campus this semester are getting a new task added to their to-do lists: Log onto "Who I Am" and provide emergency contact information.

The new service is the latest upgrade to Cornell's ongoing emergency planning effort. Since the late 1990s, well before 9/11 and recent U.S. campus shootings, Cornell has had a team of officials and responders dedicated to planning for events most people don't want to think about."

The Governor's Task Force on Campus Safety is focused on ensuring the safety of college campuses across Wisconsin. At the direction of Governor Jim Doyle, the Task Force is reviewing and compiling criteria for developing best practices from universities, colleges, and other higher education institutions in Wisconsin and across the nation. This information will be submitted to the governor and will serve as a resource for college administrators, law enforcement officers, and emergency preparedness officials.

On April 16, 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 faculty and students and wounded 25 others before killing himself in an academic building on campus. The university is still dealing with the aftermath of the incident and expects it to be an ongoing concern for the foreseeable future. This session will encapsulate summaries of the IT-related lessons learned including the impact on the university's communication system; the notification issue; radio communications interoperability; the sheer logistics of accommodating the communications infrastructure and control center needs for a variety of emergency responders and law enforcement; identity management and privacy; and data preservation and computer forensics. Overriding all of these issues is the question of federal, state, and local policies and ways in which policy issues were encountered, confronted, and managed.

In light of the recent tragedy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed an executive order April 30, 2007, creating a Gubernatorial Task Force to research University Campus Safety in Florida. The Task Force, chaired by Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, will evaluate the security risks at the college and university campuses throughout the State. Other members include representatives of law enforcement, education, disaster planning, the Attorney General's office and students. The Task Force will meet in several locations across the State before submitting their findings and recommendations to Governor Crist on May 24, 2007

In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, colleges and universities across the country are reviewing their emergency preparedness plans and evaluating their ability to quickly notify constituents in crisis situations. Networked technologies (posting notices on Web sites, e-mailing information, and sending text messages to cell phones) are among the most promising solutions. As campuses explore options for their emergency communication plan, they must also consider infrastructure and policy and procedural components. This session will provide an overview of the strategies for emergency notifications of students, employees, and visitors, as well as a context and resources for campus emergency preparedness planning.