U.S. Department of Education’s OSDFS Releases Action Guide for Emergency Management at Institutions of Higher Education
Each week, the Higher Education Center showcases recent developments in the field of AOD abuse and violence prevention in higher education that may include new data and resources, upcoming events and programs, funding opportunities, and learning opportunities. To see a listing of previous This Week! features, visit the This Week! archive.
February 19, 2009
The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS), in collaboration with ED’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center (TA Center), is pleased to announce the release of the Action Guide for Emergency Management at Institutions of Higher Education.
Recent events at institutions of higher education underscore the need to develop guidelines to assist institutions of higher education in dealing with a wide variety of emergency and crisis situations. To that end, OSDFS convened a panel of experts in Washington, D.C., in November 2007 to discuss the underlying issues, challenges, and characteristics that are unique to the emergency management field within a higher education context. Based on the insights of this panel, follow-up work by OSDFS and TA Center staff, as well as continued guidance from the field, this Action Guide was developed.
The Action Guide aims to offer institutions of higher education a useful resource in the field of emergency management. It is intended to serve as a resource for all types of institutions of higher education. Community colleges, two- and four-year colleges and universities, graduate schools, and research institutions associated with higher education entities, both public and private, can use the Action Guide throughout their emergency management planning efforts. Depending on need and experience, the information provided in this Action Guide can help personnel from higher education institutions and their partners better understand the field of emergency management within a higher education context, develop and implement an institution’s emergency management plan, and/or serve as a reference and resource to improve an institution’s existing plan. The Action Guide is not meant to serve as a prescriptive document, but rather is intended to provide a number of resources and references to facilitate the emergency management planning process for institutions at all levels of knowledge and development.
The Action Guide is available through the REMS TA Center Web site and ED's Emergency Planning Web site.