The FEMA Emergency Management Institute is offering a new Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education course June 22-24 at Richard H. Barry Hall, room 266. The course will help NDSU be prepared to respond, in partnership with local, state, tribal and federal agencies, to a natural disaster using the same terminology and approach.
Dustin Jensen, NDSU Ready Campus Initiative project director, says the primary audience for this three-day training will be personnel from institutions of higher education who have responsibilities for creating, reviewing, implementing and exercising emergency operating plans. This includes personnel with the direct responsibility for emergency management as well as other campus personnel who may serve as members of the planning team.
The course promotes campus safety through the Incident Command System and to prepare the NDSU community to interface with community response personnel. "This course will provide institutional personnel with knowledge and planning strategies to better protect lives, property and their universities critical operations more effectively and efficiently within the context of comprehensive emergency management," Jensen said.
The Incident Command System is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazard incident management approach. It consists of procedures for managing personnel, facilities, equipment and communications.
The system can be used to manage incidents including disasters, such as fires, tornadoes, floods, ice storms or earthquakes, disease outbreaks and prevention measures, hazardous materials accidents in chemistry labs, hostile intruders or other criminal acts. It also can be used for planned events, such as evacuation drills, festivals, sporting events and graduations.
The training will benefit NDSU by giving attendees the knowledge, skills and abilities to:
• Recognize the importance of an emergency plan that meets the unique needs of an institution of higher education.
• Identify hazards that present risks for institutions of higher education and the impact of those hazards.
• Identify the process and benefits of conducting a risk assessment.
• Create a partnership with community stakeholders.
• Identify and assemble a planning team.
• Develop or revise a multi-hazard Emergency Operations Plan.
• Develop and implement a strategy for training and testing the plan.
• Engage the academic community in the essential elements of emergency planning.
For more information, contact Dustin Jensen at 1-8598 or dustin.jensen@ndsu.edu or Breanna Koval at 1-5081 or breanna.koval@ndsu.edu.