Catalyst Newsletter Focuses on College and University Emergency Preparedness

Colleges and universities, like any community, always respond to crises and emergencies. But now, with the encouragement of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, campuses across the United States are taking a more deliberate approach to plan for any emergency, including accidents, epidemics, natural disasters, violent incidents, and terrorist attacks. Emergency preparedness on campuses is an umbrella term that includes all of the efforts aimed at protecting the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff from unexpected threats.

“Since emergencies are, by definition, sudden and unexpected, campuses have to have plans and resources in place well ahead of time in order to respond decisively to the wide range of emergencies that can strike their community,” says Virginia Mackay-Smith, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention, one of the national resource centers operated by HHD. “In addition, many emergencies on campuses affect people beyond the campus, so college officials have to coordinate their response with communities around them, which is difficult to arrange in the midst of the crisis.”

To provide timely information on developing campus emergency preparedness plans, the first issue of the electronic version of Catalyst is devoted to this topic. Catalyst is a 12-page newsletter published by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. Catalyst editor Barbara Ryan says that this periodical is an important way to offer information on current issues and emerging trends in higher education regarding alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention to campus officials, including senior administrators and prevention professionals, and those in surrounding communities.

“We decided to focus an entire issue of our online newsletter on emergency preparedness to highlight and support the efforts of the many campuses that are moving so quickly to get up to speed in this area,” says Mackay-Smith. Ryan adds, “Being prepared to respond to the full range of emergencies that profoundly affect campus and community life can reduce potential problems related to personal safety, alcohol and drug use, and violence. Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans campuses underscore the importance of emergency preparedness.”

Included in this issue of Catalyst are articles on the U.S. Department of Education’s perspective on campus emergency preparedness, the four elements of a comprehensive preparedness plan (prevention/ mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery), an interview with expert Eugene Zdziarski of the University of Florida, and how students can contribute in emergencies, as well as a list of resource materials. There is also information from The Network: Addressing Collegiate Alcohol and Other Drug Issues, which represents approximately 1,575 postsecondary institutions.

January 31, 2006