Many Colleges' New Emergency Plan: Try to Account for Every Possibility

May 17, 2016
  • Industry News

Whatever the hazard — whether a meningitis outbreak or hosting the U.S. Olympic trials in track and field — the University of Oregon intends to be ready.

The university has drafted what is known as an "all hazards" emergency-operations plan — a comprehensive assessment of how it expects to respond to the various risks and disasters that could befall it. To carry out the plan, Oregon created an incident-management team of about 25 people, drawn from offices across the university, who are trained to standardsestablished by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When a mass shooting shook the small campus of nearby Umpqua Community College this month, the university sent members of its team to offer assistance.