Whether it’s a hurricane or an active shooter, we must reconsider our campus crisis management

When it comes to emergency preparedness, universities and colleges understand the importance of having policies, protocols, and procedures in place to minimize damages, prevent tragedies, ensure a safe environment for staff and students who work and live on campus. Campus emergency planning is a very complex process due to the enormous number of existing and potential threats. Universities and colleges can be found in various locations across the states, and they must plan to deal with different kinds of emergencies, ranging from natural hazards, such as hurricanes and pandemics, to man-made disasters, such as active shooters.

Many college students believe that it is the universities’ responsibility to prepare them for emergencies, which explains why students are repeatedly found not competent in preparing for emergencies. Several factors affect the vulnerability of college students to the adverse impacts of threats and hazards, including lack of social networks, experience with natural hazard events, financial well-being, preparedness competency, and most importantly, risk perception. Students have been regularly found to have low-risk perceptions, and their behavior is affected by an optimism bias, where they recognize the severity of the threat on others but not themselves.

Campus emergency preparedness falls into five main categories: 1) Prevention, this refers to constantly taking actions to prevent threats and emergencies from happening. 2) Protection, this focuses on present actions protecting students and staff from threats or hazards. 3) Mitigation, this refers to institutional capacity in order to eliminate the loss of life and reduce property damage by lessening the emergency impact. It refers also to reducing the possibility that a threat will happen. 4) Response, this refers to having the necessary capabilities to establish a safe environment, stabilize an emergency, save lives and property, and also facilitate a smooth transition to recovery. And 5) Recovery, this refers to restoring the learning environment.

Currently, as the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting campuses across the globe, universities and colleges have been working around the clock in order to implement their emergency plans that reduce the pandemic impact on students and staff. Many decisions have been made about restricting activities, transitioning to online education, closing campuses, and canceling sports events. At the same time, universities and colleges are balancing the potential negative consequences caused by such decisions, including physical and mental challenges facing their staff and students, as well as decreased admissions, enrollment, admissions, and finances.

Even with great resources provided to help in various emergency scenarios, significant gaps still exist. In order to effectively function in a precise and timely manner, emergency planning at these institutions should be tailored to fit the entire student body on campus. Available research has shown that emergency planning at U.S. campuses lacks specificity, which makes emergency management less effective before, during, and after disasters. Another reason that makes disaster preparedness at U.S. campuses very challenging is the lack of research from the students’ perspective. For disaster preparedness efforts to be effective, input and insight from all the different groups on campus must be considered to craft the most effective emergency planning and recovery measures. All that shows a considerable room for improvement in how these institutions operate in times of disasters.

Effective crisis management and development of campus emergency operations are not done in isolation. U.S. colleges and universities play a critical role in serving as main emergency management partners to state, local, federal and private-sector institutions. It is essential that U.S. campuses work with their community partners such as first responders, public health officials, mental health officials, emergency managers, local community organizations, and government officials during the planning process because an effective campus emergency operation plan must be integrated with state, regional, and community plans. These collaborations make more resources reachable and help to ensure the smooth integration of all partners and responders. Moreover, in order to have effective crisis management on campus, universities and colleges will benefit from conducting regular studies to find new ways to actively involve the different groups on campus in the crafting process of crisis management. By doing so, the success of the process becomes a shared responsibility between students, staff, and campus administration.