Emergency Readiness & Management - IHE

Colleges and universities must determine how to effectively identify early warning signals of threatening behaviors and develop appropriate prevention, intervention, and emergency response plans. While the reduction of risk factors is critical, higher education communities must also strive to promote positive behavioral outcomes through carefully-developed, evidence-based programs, such as mental health and social and emotional learning programs.

During an emergency or crisis, college and university staff serve as the first responders to the situation. The Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8 provides guidance for preventing, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from potential threats and emergencies, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and pandemics. This preparedness framework’s five mission areas in building capacity to ensure the safety and resilience of students, faculty, and staff:

• Prevention - avoid, deter, or stop an imminent crime or threat or actual mass casualty incident.
• Protection - secure institutions of higher education against acts of violence and manmade or natural disasters.
• Mitigation - eliminate or reduce the loss of life and property damage by lessening the impact of an event or emergency.
• Response - stabilize an emergency once it has already happened or is certain to happen in an unpreventable way.
• Recovery - assist institutions of higher education and communities affected by an event or emergency in restoring a safe and supportive learning environment.

Learn more about this policy directive from FEMA: National Preparedness: Presidential Policy Directive-8

To be the most effective in keeping students and staff safe and helping them recover after a crisis situation, emergency planning must be inclusive of and responsive to the unique environmental and cultural aspects of an institution of higher education and its surrounding community. Actively engaging community stakeholders (e.g., law enforcement, mental health professionals) and campus staff across all institutional levels increases the capacity of multiple entities so they are prepared to assist in emergencies. Therefore, FEMA recommends the following guidance for colleges and universities to employ in their planning processes:

• Planning must be supported by IHE leadership
• Planning uses assessment to customize plans to the individual institution
• Planning considers all threats and hazards
• Planning provides for the access and functional needs of the campus community
• Planning considers all settings and all times
• Planning considers the individual preparedness of students, faculty, and staff
• Planning meets the requirements of all applicable laws
• Creating and revising a model emergency operations plan is done by following a collaborative process

Find additional planning information and guidance for developing high-quality emergency plans for institutions of higher education from REMS TA Center: Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Institutions of Higher Education

Campus emergencies may be sudden and arise without warning. A key component of emergency planning is creating an emergency operations plan (EOP), or a document that outlines how a college or university will prepare for, respond to, and recover from an emergency. FEMA recommends a six-step process to guide colleges’ and universities’ EOP planning process:

• Step 1: Form a collaborative planning team
• Step 2: Understand the situation
• Step 3: Determine goals and objectives
• Step 4: Identify courses of action
• Step 5: Prepare, review, and approve plans
• Step 6: Implement and maintain the plan

Explore REMS TA Center guidance on how to develop or enhance high-quality IHE EOPs: Institution of Higher Education Planning and Response Teams: Developing and Enhancing the Higher ed Emergency Operations Plan