1. Create a task force. Create a campus-wide task force or permanent committee for emergency preparations. The group must be composed of stakeholders from all necessary divisions or offices of the institution, including student life, campus safety, institutional technology, housing, chaplain, counseling center, communications, business affairs, dining services and the student body. Each campus possesses its own concerns, best unearthed and discussed by a committed group of professionals and student leaders before a crisis occurs. Ancillary relationships with the local police, fire, city hall and Homeland Security offices can only help with their expertise and collateral support.
2. Let campus constituents know what they should expect. Educate the community on what will happen when a notice is issued, and ask them what they want. For example, students not only want to know what the crisis is, and what they should do, but they usually want to know where the crisis is happening. At a bare minimum, they should know which locations they should avoid.
3. Expect that information will change ¬rapidly. Have a procedure in place for updates. Realize that in many instances, as soon as the alert is sent, the situation changes. Also, understand that most text alert systems cannot send a follow up alert without bogging down the system.
4. Create message templates. Canned or template messages are often an excellent means to expedite alerts, but measures must be in place to avoid erroneous information resulting from such messages. Canned messages are better served as a “starting point” rather than an end product.
