NCJ Number
187732
Journal
Campus Law Enforcement Journal Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2001 Pages: 9-10,34
Editor(s)
Karen E. Breseman
Date Published
February 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article presents recommendations on the planning, development, and implementation of a simplified emergency response plan for college campuses.
Abstract
With a Disaster Manual in place, the Mount Holyoke College administration realized that most of its team meetings were spent on updating and revising its Disaster Manual and not on practicing and training people to handle emergencies. In addition, the manual was too large and too cumbersome to be helpful in a crisis. The administration reviewed its emergency response plan and aligned it with its mission. The administration now spends 80 percent of its time on drills with on-campus individuals, and 20 percent of its time keeping the manual current. This article offers recommended steps when planning for emergencies on campus, based on the experiences of Mount Holyoke College. The first step is to appoint an Emergency Management Team with authority to respond to emergencies and start mitigation. The second step is to create a simple resource manual outlining the responsibilities of the team members. A summary of the manual is discussed in the article. The third step is to meet with local emergency response officials to plan table top and field drills. The last step is to make sure the manual gets updated as a result of the experiences from the drills. The benefits at Mount Holyoke are improved emergency response, better town relationships, and a greater awareness on campus about the importance of this type of planning through simplifying.