Course Goal

Course Goal
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have a responsibility to take care of their students, staff, and
faculty. Most IHEs are very safe places—but for those unthinkable emergency instances, IHEs need to
have a plan.

The goal of this course is to provide IHEs with knowledge and planning strategies to protect lives,
property, and the environment by supporting operations more effectively within the context of
comprehensive emergency management.

Course Objectives
By the end of this course, you should be able to:

Define comprehensive emergency management

Identify the importance of emergency planning as it relates to the unique needs of an Institution of
Higher Education (IHE)
Identify hazards that present risks for IHEs and the impacts of those hazards
Identify the process and benefits of conducting a risk assessment
Identify and create a partnership with internal and external stakeholders
Define the characteristics of a planning team
Develop or revise a multi-hazard Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
Describe strategies for training and testing the EOP
Create a Recovery Plan

Lesson 1 Objectives
At the conclusion of this lesson, you should be able to:

Identify the elements of the preparedness system described in key preparedness doctrine and
guidance
Describe the common core capabilities, the five Mission Areas, and the national preparedness
system
State the benefits of emergency planning
List some unique needs of higher education emergency planning

Preparedness: How the Pieces Fit Together

Presidential Policy Directive 8 (PPD-8) describes the Nation’s approach to national preparedness. By
doing so, PPD-8 is the vision that links together national preparedness efforts using the following key
elements:

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National Preparedness Is a Shared Responsibility

National preparedness is a shared responsibility. As such, the PPD is designed to facilitate an integrated,
all-of-Nation/whole community, capabilities-based approach to preparedness. Involving Federal partners;
State, local, and tribal leaders; the private sector; nongovernmental organizations; faith-based and
community organizations; and—most importantly—the general public is vital to keeping people and
communities safe and preventing the loss of life and property when disasters strike.

Additional information on each of these preparedness elements can be found at the FEMA PPD-8 web
page.

What is Preparedness?

This same definition applies to all communities and jurisdictions, such as local, State, tribal, cities, IHEs,
etc.

There is an underlying premise in this description of preparedness: If you have the capabilities to manage
the greatest, worst-case probable situation, you will also be prepared to handle lesser incidents—the
routine and less-than-catastrophic incidents that make up most of emergency management.

The key is building and sustaining capabilities at all levels.

Mission Areas and Core Capabilities

Mission Areas are comprised of the capabilities required for achieving the function at any time (before,
during, or after an incident) and across all threats and hazards.

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Course Goal

Mission Areas differ from phases of emergency management. Each mission area is comprised of the
capabilities required for achieving the mission or function at any time (before, during, or after an
incident) and across all threats and hazards. It is important to shift your thinking to capabilities rather
than phases.

The Five Mission Areas

The five Mission Areas include:

Prevention: The capabilities necessary to avoid, prevent, or stop a threatened or actual act of
terrorism. It is focused on ensuring we are optimally prepared to prevent an imminent terrorist
attack within the United States. As defined by PPD-8, the term “prevention” refers to preventing
imminent threats.
Protection: The capabilities necessary to secure the homeland against acts of terrorism and
human-caused or natural disasters.
Mitigation: The capabilities necessary to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the potential
impact of disasters.
Response: The capabilities necessary to save lives, protect property and the environment, and
meet basic human needs immediately after an incident has occurred.
Recovery: The capabilities necessary to assist communities affected by an incident to recover
effectively.

Core Capabilities
The core capabilities are:

Distinct critical elements necessary to meet the National Preparedness Goal.

Essential for the execution of each Mission Area.
Developed and sustained through the combined efforts of the whole community.

Mission Areas/Core Capabilities

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Course Goal

From the National Preparedness Goal (NPG), September 2015

Prevention Protection Mitigation Response Recovery

Planning* Planning* Planning* Planning* Planning*

Public Information Public Information Public Information Public Information Public Information
and Warning* and Warning* and Warning* and Warning* and Warning*
Operational Operational Operational Operational Operational
Coordination* Coordination* Coordination* Coordination* Coordination*
Forensics and Access Control and Community Critical Economic
Attribution Identity Verification Resilience Transportation Recovery
Intelligence and Cybersecurity Long-Term Environmental Health and Social
Information Vulnerability Response/Health Services
Sharing* Reduction and Safety
Interdiction and Intelligence and Risk and Disaster Fatality Housing
Disruption* Information Sharing Resilience Management
* Assessment Services
Screening, Search Interdiction and Threats and Fire Management Infrastructure
and Detection* Disruption* Hazard and Suppression Systems*
Identification
  Physical Protective   Infrastructure Natural and
Measures Systems* Cultural Resources
  Risk Management   Mass Care  
for Protection Services
Programs and
Activities
  Screening, Search   Mass Search and  
and Detection* Rescue Operations
  Supply Chain   On-Scene Security  
Integrity and and Protection
Security
      Operational  
Communications
      Public and Private  
Services and
Resources
      Public Health and  
Medical Services
      Situational  
Assessment
*Indicates shared capability

Common Core Capabilities

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Three of the core capabilities are common to all five Mission

Areas:  Planning, Public Information and Warning, and
Operational Coordination.

These capabilities:

Unify the Mission Areas.

Are necessary, in many ways, for building the other
capabilities.

National Preparedness System

If the National Preparedness Goal is the “what,” the National
Preparedness System (NPS) is the “how.”

The NPS builds on current efforts, many of which are established in

the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act and other
statutes. It is a system of concepts, processes, guidance, and tools
that:

Integrates current efforts into an efficient, effective system.

Supports:

Decisionmaking
Resource allocation
Measuring of progress

Leads to Preparedness

For more information, review the NPS components document.

Next, let's explore the benefits of emergency planning by reviewing a couple scenarios and answering
some questions.

Unique Considerations of Higher Education Emergency

Planning
The previous scenarios highlighted some of the complexity of emergency management at an IHE.  Each
institution is unique in their environment - student population, demographics, geographic size and
location, etc.  All these factors must be considered when developing an Emergency Operations Plan.     

Some unique considerations that IHEs have in regard to emergency planning is:

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College and university campuses often cover large geographic areas, and sometimes even
resemble small towns with the full extent of services in their vicinity (i.e., medical centers, sports
complexes, residential centers, businesses).
The campus population changes from day to day, semester to semester, and year to year.
Many IHEs operate complex enterprises in addition to their academic programs. Hospitals,
research and development facilities, performing arts venues, athletic complexes, agriculture
centers, residential complexes, food services, and transportation systems all present a unique set
of circumstances that must be considered when designing EOPs.

See your Companion Workbook for a listing of other IHEs unique considerations, then identify the ones
that are particularly relevant to your IHE and add at least two new items to the bottom of the list. 

Emergency Planning Process

The Emergency Planning Process includes six (6) steps:

Step 1: Form a Collaborative Planning Team

Step 2: Understand the Situation
Step 3: Determine Goals and Objectives
Step 4: Plan Development
Step 5: Plan Preparation, Review, & Approval
Step 6: Plan Implementation and Maintenance

This course discusses aspects of all the steps, although not all steps are discussed in chronological
order.

Emergency Planning Process

Step 1: Form a Step 2: Step 3: Determine Step 4: Plan Step 5: Plan Step 6: Plan
Collaborative Understand the Goals and Development Preparation, Implementation &
Planning  Team Situation Objectives Review, & Approval Maintenance

Identify Identify Determine Develop Write the Exercise

Core Threats Operational and Plan the Plan
Planning and Priorities Analyze Review the Review,
Team Hazards Set Goals Course of Plan Revise,
Engage the Assess and Action* Approve and and
Whole Risk* Objectives* Identify Disseminate Maintain
Community Resources* the Plan the Plan
in Planning Identify
Information
and
Intelligence
Needs*

*A meeting occurs before each step marked with an asterisk.

Lesson 1 Summary

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Course Goal

You should now be able to:

Identify the elements of the preparedness system described in key preparedness doctrine and
guidance
Describe the common core capabilities, the five Mission Areas, and the national preparedness
system
State some benefits of emergency planning
List some unique needs of higher education emergency planning

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