Institutions need to consider emergency management and disaster preparedness, panelists said during a session on “Ready Campus: Helping Your Community in Times of Crisis.”

Executive Vice President James Birge of Wheeling Jesuit University (WV), and President Michael MacDowell and Helen Speziale, professor of nursing, of College Misericordia (PA), discussed Ready Campus, a Pennsylvania program that assists colleges and universities in planning coordinated responses to disasters and emergencies.

Ready Campus consists of an informational website (www.readycampus.org) and a downloadable emergency manual. The manual includes an overview of emergency management, action steps for creating institution-community partnerships, best practices for minimizing risk and liability, and case studies illustrating how other academic institutions have reached out to help their communities before, during, and after a disaster.

Ready Campus aims to provide a flexible, adaptable planning guide to prepare campuses for emergencies. Just as importantly, it instructs campuses on how to become valuable resources for serving surrounding communities in times of crisis. The current success of the Ready Campus program within Pennsylvania suggests that it could serve as a nationwide model for campus disaster preparedness.

Session attendees were very excited to learn of the Ready Campus program. David Caputo, president of Pace University (NY), who had significant first-hand experience with a campus disaster scenario during 9/11, commended the effort. “Other institutions need to do more,” said Caputo. “Many haven’t done enough, especially in light of 9/11.”

View presentation slides from the Ready Campus session.