MU campus makes plans for possible emergencies

by Jordan Milne

May 19,2007

Since the recent Virginia Tech massacre, a fear has spread over schools across the country. The University of Missouri-Columbia is taking steps to alleviate this concern and help make students, staff and surrounding citizens feel more secure.

"When those kinds of things happen, we have to handle the initial issue first and then decide on implementation," said MU Police Chief Jack Watring. "I think Virginia Tech was criticized on how they handled the situation, but I believe they've done a good job."

Gov. Matt Blunt has addressed the issue by organizing a group to plan and delegate campus safety in all Missouri colleges and universities.

"The Campus Safety Task Force is the governor's statewide campus security task force," said Watring, a member of the force. "There are 24 members from all over the state representing several different organizations in fields such as law, education and mental health."

Aside from the statewide efforts, MU officials have plans in the works to protect against emergency situations particular to the university.

"We have a safety committee on campus that I meet with regularly and an emergency operations plan that we review and update often," said Watring. "With our emergency operations plan, we are not just talking about the event of a shooting; this covers all disasters, man-made or natural."

Peter Ashbrook, MU's director of environmental health and safety, is the keeper of the emergency operations plan.

"The MU emergency operations plan is a general-purpose plan we've been working on for years that addresses all types of emergencies," said Ashbrook. "The past couple of years, there's been a particular increased interest at MU, and nationwide, on emergency preparation because of the hurricanes, snow and ice storms and pandemic flu concerns."

The emergency operations plan spreads across the university, involving everyone from the president to the resident advisers in the dorms.

"We've met with a number of campus constituents that are an important part of the plan. The division of IT has been working on requests for proposals to increase our capabilities of mass communication to get the word out as soon as possible in the case of an emergency," said Ashbrook. "We also have contacts in each of our buildings, called building coordinators, we work with to develop building space plans."

According to Watring, working with the city is one of the key aspects to making the plan a success.

"We cooperate a great deal with the city of Columbia. It's not just a university issue, so we have the city's resources to assist us," said Watring. "We've been coordinating with several people on campus and through the city, including the MU chancellors, the MU Environmental Health and Safety Department, the vice president, the MU Information Technology services, the Columbia Police Department and the Columbia Fire Department."

After the plan is complete, the university must overcome another obstacle by putting preparations into action.

"The biggest issue for us is to get everybody familiar with the plan and how to implement it," said Ashbrook. "Sometimes we exercise the plan at big campus happenings, such as football games, and through drills."

According to Ashbrook, a scripted shooting scenario drill had been planned for the campus on April 17th, the day after the Virginia Tech shootings occurred.

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