In their upcoming 2024 AACRAO Annual Meeting session, hosts Edward Trombley, Registrar at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Diana Hull, Senior Associate University Registrar at the University of Florida, will discuss what role the Registrar’s Office has in preparing and managing emergency events on campus and how these plans could be improved. When we asked Mr. Trombley why they chose to present on this topic he replied:
The idea for this topic originated with a discussion of pandemic-related adjustments that our universities had made to accommodate remote work with very short notice. We wanted to expand the discussion to include planning for, and strategies to employ, continuing to offer our standard services when faced with other kinds of unanticipated workplace emergencies.
This session was designed to be a round-table, with open discussion around the idea of sharing emergency strategies employed by institutions of varying sizes, student populations, public, private, etc. We can’t provide a simple list of solutions to plan for every workplace emergency, but we hope to foster a lively discussion of how universities and offices within those institutions have planned for, or reacted to, emergency situations, and share best practices.
On the topic of AACRAO's Annual Meeting in general Mr. Trombley said:
We look forward to sharing this topic at the annual meeting, as it brings together the widest variety of institutions of varied sizes and types, that are also geographically diverse. We know that our institutions in Florida must have hurricane plans in place to maintain operations, northern schools plan for snow emergencies, and midwestern schools may face tornado threats…are the plans we use similar? Can we learn from each other?
We were able to share this presentation in a well-received session at SACRAO, the Southern Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, in Lexington, KY, in February, and look forward to expanding the discussion with the audience in Columbus.
Have you registered for the 2024 Annual Meeting yet? Register today to attend and collaborate with your peers in higher education.