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Simulation Overview:
Tragic events on college campuses, including natural disasters, facilities accidents and violent incidents, have created a heightened awareness of the importance of a coordinated, multidepartmental campus response. An inadequate and untimely response to a campus crisis can lead to fatalities, damaged infrastructure, public relations challenges and damage to your campus' reputation. While the best preparation is conducting a simulation with all stakeholders on your campus, most campuses do not have the tremendous time, effort, and resources to conduct a simulation. So, what can you do to prepare your campus?
Academic Impressions is presenting a unique event that will simulate an emergency situation that requires an immediate response and clear, efficient communication among key campus and community stakeholders.
Featured Whitepaper: Crisis Communication Case Study: An Analyzed Response to a Research Lab Accident
Learn how three higher education professionals would respond to a campus crisis. Cindy Lawson, a communications professional, Steve Charvat, an emergency manager, and Gene Zdziarski, a student affairs expert, react to a laboratory emergency.
 Read the Full Whitepaper
Practice with a Crisis Simulation to Ensure Effective Team Response
This event will focus on the coordination efforts of emergency response teams through simulating a very hands-on crisis. Therefore, it is important to bring the key players from your campus. Each campus must send a team of at least four individuals, each from a different area within the campus. Team members should be chosen from:
- Student affairs
- Communications
- Emergency management
- Campus safety
- Campus leadership
Additional members are invited to attend, up to a total of seven individuals per campus team. Please call 720.488.6800 if you have questions about your group.
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Podcasts
Hear from Steve Charvat, one of the world's first certified emergency managers, and currently the emergency management director at the University of Washington. Listen and learn from Steve as he analyzes the emergency manager's role in campus crisis response and the importance of participating in a crisis simulation.
Download this podcast now |
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| Learn from Cindy Lawson about the importance of clear communications during a crisis response. Cindy was the executive director of university relations during the bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M University and she is currently the assistant to the chancellor for marketing and communications at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Download this podcast now |
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A Simulation Approach: What You Will Learn
Over the course of three days, teams will work together to coordinate and test their readiness to respond to a crisis.
Day 1
- Laying the groundwork: This is a chance to get all of your team participants up to speed on the basics of emergency response from a safety, communications, and student-focused perspective.
Day 2
- Interactive simulation: The professionally-developed simulation will allow your team members to test different aspects of their response strategies. This all-day simulation, led by expert faculty, will guide your team through several intense decision-making points that will require a cross-campus perspective.
Day 3
- Debrief: The in-depth debrief will focus on how to improve your crisis response once your team returns to campus, including re-examining your emergency response plan and training students on their role as first responders.
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Event Takeaways
Through active participation in this simulated activity and interaction with peers, teams will learn how to decide:
- Which emergencies would cause event cancellation, residence hall closures, and other campus service shut-downs or restrictions
- Immediate communications responses needed during various stages of a crisis situation
- Appropriate messaging systems to efficiently distribute important information to targeted stakeholders
- Effective communication responses with local authorities and other officials/stakeholders
- What you need to modify on your existing emergency management plans
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Program Agenda:
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
| 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. |
| Registration |
| 1:00 – 1:15 p.m. |
| Opening Comments/Faculty Introductions |
| 1:15 – 2:45 p.m. |
| All-Hazards Disaster Planning: Developing a Scalable Framework for your Campus |
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Many effective emergency response plans begin with the establishment of a framework for decision-making campus leaders can use to categorize the various types of emergencies that may occur on a campus. In this session, we will begin the discussion by examining types of emergencies that may happen, and provide a perspective on how best to establish how decisions would be made across the spectrum – everything from short-term, isolated individual event cancellations to complete campus shut-downs.
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| 2:45 – 4:00 p.m. |
| Effective Communication with Students, Staff, and Faculty |
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Once a crisis has happened on your campus, a critical first step is to determine how best to communicate with students. In this session, our program faculty will work with participants to provide guidance on how to make the best decisions about what messages to communicate to students, faculty, staff, and other campus constituents, when to communicate those messages, and how to effectively communicate those messages to them.
Participants will examine different types of messaging systems that are available for message distribution, identify appropriate systems that may suit their own individual situations, and consider the factors required for successful communication implementation, maintenance, and upkeep.
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| 4:30 – 5:45 p.m. |
| Effective Communication and Partnerships with Campus & Community Stakeholders |
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Depending on the level of the emergency, it may be necessary to establish communication with local authorities or other community stakeholders. A successful emergency management plan will provide guidance on specifically whom to communicate with and offer some guidance on when it is appropriate to do so.
In this session, program faculty will share their perspective and ask for participants' viewpoints in a discussion that will help provide direction on how to identify these stakeholders and get clarity on when, and at what level, they should become involved in the emergency situation.
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| 5:45 – 6:15 p.m. |
| Wrap-Up/Q&A/Preparation for Simulation |
| 6:15 – 7:15 p.m. |
| Networking Reception (included in registration) |
Thursday, February 26, 2009
| 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. |
| Continental Breakfast (included in registration) |
| 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
| Simulation |
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In this simulated campus crisis situation, participating campus teams will work together to respond to unfolding events throughout the day. The simulation has been designed to be relevant to every campus, regardless of campus location, size, and student body profile, to ensure that your participation will be beneficial.
The simulation is complex and multi-layered to allow for depth in conversation and intentionally difficult decision-making. Teams will be challenged not only with information and crises, but also with choices requiring a quick response and a fully coordinated effort among campus and community stakeholders alike.
Program faculty and Academic Impressions staff will be available to consult with teams and provide guidance as each team navigates through the decision points in the crisis scenario. The faculty have been involved with dozens of crisis simulations and actual crises and will make every attempt to ensure that the simulation is realistic but also manageable.
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Friday, February 27, 2009
| 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. |
| Continental Breakfast (included in registration) |
| 8:30 – 9:45 a.m. |
| Debrief: Simulation Reflections |
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In this session, program participants will have an opportunity to share their thoughts about the simulation experience. Program faculty and staff will facilitate individual and group discussions to help debrief the simulation experience and provide focused reflection questions to help participants assess and integrate what they have learned into their respective campus response plans.
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| 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. |
| Debrief: Considerations for Students as First Responders |
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In some circumstances, your student population may be at the scene of these emergencies and, indeed, be the first line of defense for a quick and efficient response. In this session, we will identify ways to prepare your student population to be "first responders" on the scene of any possible emergency situation. We will discuss the importance of involving student affairs personnel in this process and consider the opportunities and risks in having students play a role in these types of situations.
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| 11:00 – 11:45 a.m. |
| Debrief: Re-Examining Your Existing Crisis Management Plan |
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Following the simulation debrief, participants will be encouraged to re-examine their existing emergency planning documents to identify opportunities for revising them in light of the simulation experience. Special attention will be paid to ensuring that plans are comprehensive, are in compliance with applicable governmental standards, and in alignment with existing departmental and interdepartmental communication.
In this discussion format, participants will have an opportunity to benefit from program faculty expertise, as well as hear from a number of colleagues who have faced and addressed similar issues.
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| 11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
| Simulation Wrap-Up / Final Questions & Answers |
| 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. |
| Lunch (included in registration) |
| 1:45 – 4:45 p.m. |
| Post-Simulation Workshops (included in registration fee) |
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While the emphasis of the simulation will be testing your communication skills during a crisis, we recognize that some participants will need some extra time, guided by the faculty, to discuss gaps in their respective crisis management plans.
The post-simulation workshop will allow participants an opportunity to explore some of these gaps and brainstorm solutions for mitigating or closing these gaps. Participants have the choice of one of the following two workshops:
Track One: Crisis Communication Plan
How to Revise Your Crisis Communication Plan
This session will introduce and explain the how-to involved in the steps in designing, implementing, and evaluating an institution-specific crisis communications/issues management plan. Attendees will develop the foundation for their plans during the remainder of the simulation. This session will cover the basics of how to write a crisis communication plan and the remainder of time will be a working session to give you an opportunity to apply that information to your own institution. You will begin to draft the framework for your own crisis communications plan, think through how each of the steps relates to your college or university, and conduct a plan audit on your plan and fellow participants plans. A faculty member will be on hand to help you address complexities and answer your questions.
Track Two: Emergency Management Plan
How to Revise Your Emergency Management Plan
In this final opportunity as a group, you can pose questions, problems, and challenges to the instructors and peer participants in order to refine your take-home workplans. This session will introduce and explain the how-to involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating your emergency management plan. It will cover the essential components of a basic plan and will focus on:
- The critical nature of teamwork and collaboration
- The role of the disaster planner in the development, maintenance, and testing of the plan
This session will highlight the basic components of a campus plan (promulgation, basic plan, annexes/appendices) as well as include current and up-to-date requirements to ensure compliance with the ever-changing federal requirements such as NIMS and ICS.
In addition, you will engage in a plan swap with other institutions. Using peer-review methods, each team will provide a blind review of the other participants' campus disaster plans. This exercise will help you gather practical hints and tips for improving your plan.
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Instructors:
Steve Charvat, Emergency Management Director, University of Washington
Steve is the first emergency management director for the University of Washington system. Previously, he was a division director for the DC Emergency Management Agency during the 9/11 and anthrax attacks. From 1999 – 2000, Steve consulted for the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Treasury Department, and Army Corps of Engineers and was the first emergency management coordinator for Phoenix, AZ. Steve completed FEMA's Professional Development Series and is one of the world's first certified emergency managers. He served as the CEM Commission chair and was elected to the Disaster Recovery Institute International Board. He is a member of the Washington State Emergency Managers Association and on the editorial board of the Journal of Emergency Management. He is a past president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, a member of the NFPA 1600 Committee, a regional earthquake consortium board member, and holds an FCC amateur radio license. He has made disaster presentations internationally.
Cindy Lawson, Assistant to the Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, University of North Carolina Wilmington
With more than 25 years' experience in public relations in both higher education and with a Fortune 500 company, Cindy's breadth of experience includes marketing, public relations, institutional research, integrated marketing, strategic planning, issues management, crisis communications, media relations, event planning, publications, web communications, visitors centers, and speakers bureaus. Prior to taking her post at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Cindy served as the vice president for communications and strategy development at the University of North Carolina system. During the 1999 bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M University, in which 12 students died and 27 others were injured, she was the executive director of university relations.
Cindy provides consulting services to cities and municipalities regarding their communication preparedness in response to terrorism. She has authored a crisis communications chapter for the recently published book Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery as well as Effective Crisis Communications, a set of instructional materials for the National Response and Recovery Center.
Eugene L. Zdziarski, Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students, Roanoke College
Prior to coming to Roanoke College, Gene served as assistant vice president & dean of students at the University of Florida. In addition, he has held positions in housing, judicial affairs, and other administrative roles at the University of Tennessee and Texas A&M University. While serving as associate director of student life at Texas A&M, Gene was responsible for the coordination and training of the division of student affairs critical incident response team and was heavily involved in the response to the 1999 Bonfire collapse. At the University of Florida, Gene chaired the division of student affairs crisis response team, served as a member of the University Counseling Resource Network and a member of the UF Emergency Operations Team.
Gene has served as the regional vice president for Region III of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and was also a member of the NASPA National board of directors. He has previously served as the state director for the State of Florida, and chair of the NASPA Task Force on Crisis Management and Violence Prevention. In addition, he serves as associate editor on the journal board for the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), and has been active member of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the Southern Association of College Student Affairs (SACSA).
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