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6 steps to better emergency preparedness on campus

Campus emergency plans must be actionable—and they must be available to all stakeholders via smart phones and other mobile devices

Today’s college campuses are faced with a myriad of potential risks, ranging from active shooters and natural disasters to power outages and medical emergencies.

emergency [1]While most institutions have emergency preparedness plans in place, these often involve extensive paper-based manuals and websites that aren’t frequently updated or readily accessible in the midst of an emergency.

As a majority of the U.S. workforce and college students now use mobile devices to get news and information, many institutions are now mobilizing campus-specific emergency guidelines and procedures by pushing critical information out to their population.

Ultimately, the best way to ensure campus-wide preparation and accessibility to key emergency preparedness information is to proactively arm students, faculty, and staff with step-by-step instructions that are available in the moment of need.

Here are six key best practices for deploying actionable emergency guidelines and procedures across a campus.

1. Make information actionable and contextual.

There is a distinct difference between a bulky and all-encompassing emergency preparedness manual versus one that only includes the most important elements and steps to safety.

As the latter is significantly more effective during an actual emergency, institutions should ensure that plans include distilled, step-by-step instructions for particular buildings, locations, venues, and roles; relevant diagrams and pictures; and resource numbers that can be accessed with one click.

Information should be continuously updated to reflect campus activities, construction, renovations, updates to resource contact numbers, and other key changes.

2. Include priority emergency scenarios.

While it can be tempting to include every possible emergency situation, students and faculty might become overwhelmed if deluged with too much information.

Universities should evaluate which types of emergencies and other situations are most likely to occur on their campuses and only include those in their actionable plans. This strategy allows the campus population to focus on the following the most critical steps and reaching out to the appropriate resources.

Common campus-related emergencies might include bomb threats, earthquakes, evacuations, fires, hazmats, medical issues, missing persons, power outages, regional emergencies, severe weather, violence, and so on.

3. Address dispersed and diverse campus populations.

A hallmark of many college campuses is a sprawling layout, often with multiple campuses, a combination of both resident and commuter students, and varying staff roles. This dynamic can prove challenging when communicating instructions during urgent situations, so universities must address how to streamline communication of important information across multiple users and locales.

As an example, George Mason University deployed a mobile emergency response app for its overall campus population, which includes more than 32,000 students across four separate campuses and 800 acres, to address common emergencies, as well as a separate app for its executive leadership team with critical procedural and contact information.

4. Anticipate power and cell interruptions.

With emergencies often causing unpredictable results, such as knocking out power and cellular service, it is key to anticipate how students and faculty will know how to respond without these communication conveniences in place.

For example, take a weather event like Hurricane Sandy, when all resources are challenged—or an active shooter event, when traditional communication services are often blocked by a traffic spike. What’s more, access to specific locations where emergency response manuals are stored might be limited based on the type of emergency.

As such, universities should take measures to avoid relying heavily on paper-based flipbooks, websites, and SMS texts for emergency planning. Rather, they should leverage solutions that save the information directly to the mobile device.

5. Go beyond emergency notifications.

While emergency notification systems leverage smart phones to alert a campus population to a specific incident or situation, they fall short of providing necessary instructions to the impacted population.

Typical campus alert systems deliver 125-character text messages or less. Telling people to shelter in place or meet at a reunification site is not enough. Providing clear guidelines and instructions to students, faculty, and staff before and during a situation offers a simple and effective way to mitigate damage and loss of life.

6. Make it easy to report incidents.

During a situation, getting timely and firsthand information greatly assists first responders and other emergency personnel in providing the right response.

While Blue Light Emergency Phones have been a popular and expensive approach, the adoption of smart phones on campuses has made it easier for students and staff to report incidents. Overnight, a large campus can expand beyond hundreds of Blue Light Emergency Phones to utilize tens of thousands of smart phones to support this service.

This subtle but important change offers campuses reduced investment, more intelligent routing, better analysis of outcomes, and quicker responses—not to mention improved reporting compliance with the Clery Act.

Taking these simple steps can greatly increase the level of safety and security on college campuses.

Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to activate and empower students, faculty, and staff to better respond to crisis situations, which will help institutions and their communities reduce the potential damage and make a quicker recovery.

Christopher Britton is the general manager for In Case of Crisis [2] and brings years of expertise and passion for solving real-life problems with creative and intuitive technology solutions. He has a long history of working with education, business, hospitality, and government clients, spanning companies like Rosetta Stone, Vocus, Visual Mining, and Interfolio.