| AU reexamines security protocols by Sally Acharya As the tragedy at Virginia Tech echoes across the nation, universities have been asking hard questions. How would their own campuses respond to such a grim test? Have they been doing everything possible to prepare for the unimaginable? The AU administration, too, has been asking those questions. The university has a substantial and substantive emergency plan that will be reviewed again in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy, said David Taylor, the president’s chief of staff. AU’s plan is posted at the Web site of Risk Management and Safety Services, www.american.edu/finance/rmo/index.html. It addresses a wide range of circumstances, including how an evacuation would be conducted, protocols for shelter-in-place, and how to communicate about an emergency to staff, faculty, and students. The plan has been fine-tuned and tested in regular planning exercises, most recently in March. A few days after the Blacksburg incident, a small group was convened to assess lessons learned from Virginia Tech and consider if new protocols could be added, Taylor said. AU has a relatively small and contained 84-acre campus, with a student population of around 10,000. The emergency communication plan includes both technological means—such as e-mail, voice mail, Web postings, and other means—and face-to-face communication by desk monitors, resident assistants, and others. Campus buildings, for instance, have trained “ building marshals,” along with alternate marshals. But how well would this plan work? Are there areas that remain to be improved? To answer those questions, it’s necessary to conceive of the inconceivable. This is done regularly at AU through scenarios that include AU principals working with government safety officials and consultants who specialize in emergency planning. These protocols were examined during a March tabletop exercise in which key AU personnel tested the plan by envisioning a crisis scenario that required quick action, rapid communication, and an interruption of operations. The participants included Interim President Neil Kerwin, Interim Provost Ivy Broder, public safety director Mike McNair, vice president of campus life Gail Hanson, director of facilities management Willy Suter, and more than a dozen others who would play leading roles during an emergency. The workshop was designed to walk through the lines of communication and uncover any possible snags or unanswered questions. What would happen to communications, they asked each other, if a Web server in a key location couldn’t be reached because of a lock-down? How would students be fed if they needed to shelter in place for a week in the residence halls? Who would be in charge of communicating with parents? The discussion was part of a continuing effort to hone an emergency plan that foresees and responds to as many eventualities as possible. “American University takes seriously its responsibility to have in place an emergency response plan that is tested, critiqued, and updated on an ongoing basis,” said Interim President Neil Kerwin. “While our thoughts will be with the Virginia Tech community for some time to come, all of us in higher education want to learn from that incident and see if there are additional ways to make our universities safer.” |
