Emergency Preparedness Plans for Colleges? Not New

Emails to CNN are calling for colleges and universities to be better prepared for emergencies. As if this were a new idea....Fifteen, twenty years ago institutions of higher education were grappling with the complexities of such a document. Often it falls to the communications staff to manage the process; more often than not, it ought to. Because the communications staff, unfortunately, is the one capable of imagining the worst: it is often the staff responsible for cleaning up after the worst occurs. I have personally encountered resistance from other administrators when attempting to create such plans who did not want to speculate on tragedy or who felt that the school's responsibility ended where civic responsibility began. Bean counters did not want to consider the value of phone banks or extra blankets; broadcast emails were the least of my problems and even they were a source of debate. Any one who has worked in nonprofits understands that even writing a three-sentence alert might require three editorial rounds and the sign-off of several individuals. This is not what you want to be explaining the parents, the students, the press, and—in Virginia Tech's case— the world when they are asking about getting critical information to the campus community.