WMU turns to EOC in case of emergency

Emergency Operations Center ensures safety with Critical Incident Response Plan

By Nichole Allen
Western Herald

In the event of an on-campus emergency, Western Michigan University turns to the Emergency Operations Center to ensure the health and safety of all students, faculty and staff.
The Critical Incident Response Plan is a set of guidelines used to effectively manage all incidences considered emergencies in and around the WMU campus and city of Kalamazoo. The CIRP includes two main groups:
•The Chief Executive Officer, the WMU President and the Critical Incident Policy Group, the University Vice Presidents.
•The EOC comprised of the following seven teams; Academic Support, Assessment, Business Support, Human Services, Logistical Support, Public Information and Public Safety.
The CIRP meets the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 p.m. in the Bernhard Center Faculty Dining Room.
The EOC recently demonstrated its ability to quickly react to the Kalamazoo water main break, which occurred on Nov. 18, affecting several parts of Kalamazoo and WMU campus.
Although the meetings are not generally open to students, occasionally students have been invited by representatives on the committee.
“In addition, we have had some students volunteer to play roles in at least one of our exercises,” Pat Holton, director of environmental safety and emergency management, said. “While we welcome student involvement at every level, logistically, the EOC is a difficult initiative in which to have students involved.”
Holton admits that the committee is an extremely long-term effort in which the focus is on individual staff members establishing relationships with their counterparts in other areas of the university.
“In the time we’ve taken to build that kind of well-oiled team, we’ve had more than eight student classes graduate,” she said. “To be an effective part of this effort would take commitments by a series of students who would agree to be available at the drop of a hat for multiple years, something that is not practical for most of our students.”
However, the EOC welcomes student input on how effective the notification process is and how they think the EOC could improve on it.
The main channel for emergency information is the WMU home page and the phone line 269-387-1001. E-mails are also sent out to students, faculty and staff. WMU is in the process of bringing a mass notification system called Reverse 911 online
The EOC considers emergency to be any type of incident that requires the rapid coordination of several departments on campus to bring a situation under control and return the university to normal operations.
“Every team in the Emergency Operations Center and the Critical Incident Policy Group have Emergency Action Guidelines that contain phone trees and steps that they need to consider or act upon,” Cam Vossen, emergency management administrator, said.
Annually the EOC practices disaster exercises designed to test their response and recovery activities. Although the next exercise has not been scheduled, the last disaster exercise was Oct. 31.
The drills range from tabletops and drills to functional exercises with full-scale components involving collaboration with the Kalamazoo County Police Dept. and the Kalamazoo Office of Emergency Management.
“In all of our exercises we work toward developing the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively respond to critical incidents in a process that involves ongoing preparation,” Vossen said. “In a full activation of the Emergency Operations Center there would be seven EOC team leads and potentially nine administrators from the Critical Incident Policy Group.  The team members represent the expertise in their specific areas.”
She added that in all of our exercises, President John Dunn, as well as the vice-presidents have participated. After every exercise or event there is a review to determine where our response can be improved as well as determine what went well.
Since the health and safety of WMU students is the primary concern of the administration and the critical incident response team, the CIRP has been modeled after the Kalamazoo County and Michigan State response plans.
The university would only close down the EOC when the incident is under control enough that the team leads could function just as easily from their offices. After the recent Kalamazoo water main break, the EOC was closed at approximately 3 p.m. on Nov. 18, but one of the teams was still working through Wednesday delivering water.
The EOC has worked with the City of Kalamazoo and the County during previous exercises.  “In every exercise we establish communication with Kalamazoo County Emergency Management,” Vossen said. “In an actual critical incident we want them to know our situation in case we need assistance.”
The planning and coordination of the exercises are done by Vossen with an exercise design team made up of employees representing the seven EOC teams.
Upcoming changes and additions to the CIRP include a new Pandemic Flu Planning Committee. The PFPC will be meeting with the leadership of student and employee groups after the first of the year to present the planning that has taken place thus far.
“After receiving feedback, the information will be put on the emergency management Web site,” Holton said.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Dec 7 2008. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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