Emergency Planning for Housing and Residence Life

1. Emergency Planning for Housing and Residence Life Association of Intermountain Housing Officers General Interest Session Annual Conference – Albuquerque, NM November 2011 Matthew Colpitts Utah State University

2. Objectives Participants will review federal regulations regarding mandatory training for employees at higher education institutions (HEI); specifically employees in housing and residence life departments (HRL). Participants will understand the basic regulatory framework regarding emergency management and emergency preparedness in HEI / HRL. Participants will examine the development of emergency management and planning efforts of the Housing and Residence Life department at Utah State University.

3. Social Media Friendly Presentation This session is social media friendly. Please feel free to post tweets, Facebook postings, etc. about the session. Please keep the posting / browsing about the session / the conference.

4. Introductions Matthew Colpitts, Utah State University Residence Director / Emergency Management Coordinator for Housing & ResLife Firefighter / EMT with North Logan Fire Department Ed.D. Student with research interests in emergency management issues in higher education I hold many certifications related to emergency services and management: ICS 100, 200, 300, 700, 800; Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education; Firefighter II; EMT; Hazardous Materials Operations; FEMA Public Information Officer

5. Introductions A key part of emergency planning and management (EM) effort is relationships. Please introduce yourself: name, position, institution, experience with emergency planning / management, and current / future EM efforts.

6. What Is It? There are a few definitions of crisis and emergencies. The best one, for the sake of this presentation is: , “a crisis is an event, which is often sudden or unexpected, that disrupts the normal operation of the institution or its educational mission and threatens the well-being of personnel, property, financial resources, and/or reputation of the institution” (Zdziarski, 2006, p. 5)

7. What Is It? An Important Note: While this presentation focuses on the technical aspects of EM, it is the human aspects that are the most important. Life Safety is # 1

8. Thoughts? Why Do It?

9. It is something that we should nearly always have on our mind. Keynote example… Why Do It?

10. Why Do It? “Crises are certain to occur” (Rollo, Zdzairski, 2007). Protect students and the community Out institutions are a part of the community A moral imperative Risk Management Legal Reasons including regulatory reasons

11. Guidance been issued by the department of education: “Key Personnel and NIMS Training for Schools and Higher Education Institutions” provides guidance. Institutions the receive federal preparedness money are required by the terms of the grants. Why Do It?

12. HSPD-5: • Issued by the President on February 28, 2003– Lessons Learned from 9/11 and Katrina. • Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer NIMS. • Requires all Federal departments and agencies to: o Adopt the NIMS. o Use it in their individual domestic incident management and emergency prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation programs and activities. o Use it in support of all actions taken to assist State, local, or tribal entities. o Make adoption of the NIMS by State and local organizations a condition for Federal preparedness assistance (through grants, contracts, and other activities) beginning in FY 2005. • Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a NRP that integrates Federal government domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery plans into a single, all-disciplines, all-hazards plan. Why Do It?

13. PPD-8: • Issued by the President on March 30, 2011 – Replaced HSPD-8 Annex 1. • Identifies national preparedness as the shared responsibility of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and individual. • Reaffirms an ‘all-hazards’ approach to preparedness. Why Do It?

14. “Key Personnel and NIMS Training for Schools and Higher Education Institutions” This handout is guidance that we jointly issued by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Education (DOE) tells us that key personnel are required to complete certain trainings: IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction IS-800: National Response Framework

15. Why Do It? - DHS – of which FEMA is a part of – and DOE do provide some discretion on how we define key personnel, “Because every school, district, and HEI is unique, and works from different operations and management structures, key personnel will vary from education community to community. Therefore…[HEIs] should use their discretion.”

16. Why Do It? There are three levels of personnel, from the guidance (Handout # 1): 1. General Personnel: Personnel with ANYrole in emergency preparedness, incident management, or response. Includes facilities, housing, and food preparation staff; also include resource staff, paraprofessionals, and support personnel. These people are supposed to complete: IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents

17. Why Do It? 2. Critical personnel: Personnel with a critical role in response. Includes the president of the institution; provosts; security and police staff; crisis team members; facilities, housing, and food preparation staff; administrators. These people need to complete: IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction IS-800: National Response Framework

18. Why Do It? 3. Leadership Personnel: Personnel with a leadership role and are typically obligated to command and manage during incident response in the absence of traditional incident response personnel (e.g., school or IHE Incident Commander). Includes the president, provosts, security / police chief, and I argue the directors of HRL offices as well as the DOS. These people need to complete: IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction IS-800: National Response Framework And additionally: IS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents IS-400: Advanced Incident Command

19. Why Do It? - In addition to the required trainings, it is recommended that HEIs adopt the National Incident Management System (NIMS). - NIMS includes the Incident Command System (ICS) which is in use by most community agencies (fire, police, EMS, hospitals, health departments, the Red Cross, and others.

20. Why Do It? “Crises are certain to occur” (Rollo, Zdzairski, 2007)

21. What We Are Doing at USU I arrived at Utah State University in August 2010 and because of my experience and academic work in emergency services and emergency management I began work on EM issues for the HRL department.

22. What We Are Doing at USU The department had engaged in a number of rounds of EM activities and had produced a lot of information. We had multiple binders of emergency plans and procedures ranging from fire evacuations to radiological events. The newest document was from around 2001 and was full five inch binder.

23. What We Are Doing at USU Most of the EM literature, both scholarly and practitioner focused, discusses the importance of getting executive buy-in. Since I already had the endorsement of the Director of Residence Life, I drafted a plan and presented it to the Director and to the Executive Director of Housing & Residence Life. The plan was approved and we began our work.

24. What We Are Doing at USU Another important concept in EM is engaging all stakeholders. The first activity that we engaged in after getting the plan approved was meeting with the Emergency Manager for the university. I advised her of our plan and asked her for feedback. At this point, I also set up monthly meetings so that we could make sure that our work in housing was integrating with (or at least not getting in the way of) the university's plan.

25. What We Are Doing at USU Housing and ResLife managers interviews. We asked about the following: History of EM at USU and in Housing Personal experience / training Professional experience / training Community involvement with EM Church experience (due to huge LDS population)

26. What We Are Doing at USU When the interviews were compiled, we learned a lot about the condition of our preparedness. Many people had some wide ranging experiences. We found that we had some ‘hidden’ experiences / perspectives (former forest ranger, 911 dispatcher, EMTs, journalists, etc.). This process allowed me, the interviewer to see a version of ‘unofficial’ history.

27. What We Are Doing at USU The results were turned into a narrative report along with recommendations.

28. What We Are Doing at USU Implementation of minimum NIMS / ICS training for all. Active Shooter Training for managers

29. What We Are Doing at USU Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training for all managers. This includes training in: Basic Fire Suppression Light Search and Rescue Medical Emergency Training Triaging Integration with Emergency Services

30. What We Are Doing at USU Regular tabletops for ProStaff. Significant difference in quality of tabletop when you compare individuals and teams that completed ICS and CERT trainings.

31. What We Are Doing at USU Updates / preparedness tips in employee newsletter Regular short articles handed out and discussed. Every meeting agenda for ResLife has a ‘Critical Incident Review’ section. These things are small but important because they keep these issues in front of us and allow us to learn from the small issues.

32. What We Are Doing at USU Student Staff Training: Emergency training (8 hours) for student staff in fall. Active Shooter Training First Aid / CPR Semesterly Inservice Session at spring training Doubles as training ProStaff

33. What We Are Doing at USU This year: We are meeting monthly meeting with USU Fire Marshal’s Office; our office and there's each assigned a liaison to the other. I am listed on there website as a contact for fire and emergency safety issues in housing. We are meeting weekly with the USU Police to coordinate response and planning. The Exec. Dir., the Dir. Of ResLife, and I meet once a month to coordinate and set / review agendas from the other regular meetings.

34. What We Are Doing at USU We have formed a steering committee for EM planning with in housing. The key members were identified by myself, the Director or ResLife and the Executive Director of Housing and ResLife. The members are from the different parts of the organization (facilities, admin, ResLife, and students). Twice monthly meetings starting in the next 2 weeks.

35. What We Are Doing at USU As is recommended by many of the experts we are starting with a risk assessment / hazard identification process. Our planning will be focused on an ‘all-hazards’ approach with specific procedures documented in appendixes / annexes.

36. Resources Books / Articles: Zdziarski, E., Bunkel, N., Rollo, J. (Eds.). (2007). Campus crisis management: A comprehensive guide to planning prevention, response, and recovery. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Duncan, M. (1993). Dealing with campus crises. In Barr, M. (Ed.). (1993). The handbook of student affairs administration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Catullo, L., Walker, D., & Floyd, D. (2009). The status of crisis management at NASPA member institutions. NASPA Journal. 46(2).

37. Resources Websites http://mcolpitts.wordpress.com (I will post this list and presentation here after the presentation) http://www.naspa.org/kc/cskc/ (Great resource page. Full disclosure – I am the Region 5 representative for this Knowledge Community) http://www.naspa.org/enough/ (Campaign to end social violence. Full disclosure – I am the Region 5 representative for this Knowledge Community http://training.fema.gov/IS/ (FEMA website; contains independent study trainings) http://rems.ed.gov (DOE Resource Website) http://www.citizencorps.gov (CERT Team Resources) http://www.redcross.org (Various training including emergency shelter certifications) http://www.iaem.com/committees/UCC/(IAEM-USA Universities & Colleges Caucus) http://training.fema.gov/EMI (Emergency Management Institute– on campus and remote trainings)

38. Resources Trainings: Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) L363 Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education G367 Emergency Planning for Campus Executives IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System IS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction IS-800: National Response Framework IS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents IS-400: Advanced Incident Command

39. Resources Some of the best resources will be your local, county, and state emergency management offices. -Your local Fire / Police / EMS departments are generally very happy to help. Also, other community agencies such as the Red Cross, and others.

40. Q&A Questions / Comments / Suggestions

41. My Contact Info Matthew Colpitts Residence Director / Emergency Management Coordinator Utah State University – Housing & ResLife Matt.colpitts@usu.edu / mcolpitts@gmail.com Work: 435-797-0493 Cell: 802-258-8882 mcolpitts.wordpress.com Twitter - @mcolpitts