Planning for Battle
Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By David Plummer and Wallace Johnson
The "fog" generated during a campus emergency can be diminished through careful planning and sound management.
At a recent conference for IT professionals in higher education, one university described its purchase of hardware and software to be used to send text messages and phone calls to more than 50,000 faculty, staff and students in the event of a crisis. However, they selected the system without adequate cross-functional representation. When the university tested the system, administrators found that its phone system didn't have enough trunk lines to make all the outgoing calls, and the system failed. After the test, the university concluded that it needed to buy more equipment and add phone lines to meet the crisis requirements. Input from a broad-based emergency communications team could have helped campus officials recognize that the infrastructure could not support the system being considered. An alternative communication method using an off-site hosted solution might have been more feasible if the true cost of the system had been known.
Institutions also must consider whether to use in-house solutions during a crisis. If there is a power or network outage, can the ENS be used? An ENS is only as good as its backup systems, such as generators, uninterruptible power sources (UPS), and alternate data centers that allow continued usage during an on-campus crisis. Allowing for both in-house and hosted solutions creates the redundant systems that are vital for uninterrupted communications during and after a crisis.
Procedures and guidelines
Even the best ENS will be ineffective without proper guidelines for using the system. Examining the circumstances surrounding the April 2007 campus massacre of students and staff members in Blacksburg, Va., the Virginia Tech Review Panel found that the university had an ENS that was capable of sending e-mail and phone messages. However, “the protocol for sending an emergency message in use on April 16 was cumbersome, untimely, and problematic when a decision was needed as soon as possible,” according to the panel.
When developing ENS guidelines, it is just as important to determine the feasibility and timeliness of the protocol used to send an emergency message as it is on which ENS to use. Will it be possible to get approval from a top administrator or convene a crisis-management team to make decisions in a timely manner during a crisis? One of the keys to fighting through the fog is disseminating accurate, timely information so people can act quickly.
Procedures for most normal messages tend to be somewhat bureaucratic, often requiring approval from the public-relations office or even a superintendent or university president. For many types of crisis, the standard approval process for mass communication is not adequate for sending timely messages. One way to overcome bureaucratic and time constraints is to determine which threats are most likely to occur at a campus and develop pre-formatted, pre-approved messages that can be sent via e-mail, text message or voicemail through the ENS. At the end of these messages, campus planners should add a statement that additional information will be sent out when available. This allows for a quick response from those affected by a crisis.
Once a decision is made to launch a message using the ENS, protocols should be in place to determine who has system access to send the message. If too few people have the access and authority to send an emergency message, the institution runs the risk that no one will be available during a crisis to launch a warning. But if too many people have access, an unapproved or unwarranted message may be sent out.
Education institutions should develop procedures where key individuals have access to the system and can send out preapproved messages for certain identified situations, such as severe weather warnings or a shooting on campus. Other messages, such as campus closures or evacuations, require additional approval from key administrators or a designated crisis-management team.
Plummer is chief project administrator for South Texas College (STC), McAllen, and is a certified Project Management Professional. Johnson has taught American government at the college for seven years, and is a former department chair and program coordinator at STC.
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