UIS Emergency Response Plan

Emergency Response Guidelines

The Emergency Response Guidelines (PDF) includes information on how you can prepare and respond to emergency situations that may arise while you are on campus.

Accidents, disasters, and emergencies can occur at any time without warning. Being prepared to respond appropriately to such situations is an individual as well as an institutional responsibility. Therefore, we encourage you to read the Emergency Response Guidelines to gain the knowledge and be able to respond in an emergency situation. Good judgment and common sense prevails in matters not foreseen or covered by the Emergency Response Guidelines.

Download a printer-friendly version of the Emergency Response Plan (PDF)

Record of Changes

When changes are made to the ERP, the following procedures should be followed:

All major changes will be on copy pages that will be updated in the ERP. New pages should be inserted as directed. The old pages will be removed and destroyed.
Plan holders will be notified of changes by memorandum and/or e-mail. Plan holders will be responsible for updating their existing ERP.
When a major change is made, an entry should be noted in the following log:

ChangeNumber	DateEntered	Page(s) or Section(S) Changed	Entered By
1	November, 2023	Page 11 Section: Line of succession and Implementing the Plan	Ross Owens
2	November, 2023	Page 14 Multi-Agency Response and Unified Command	Ross Owens
3	December, 2023	Page 19 Added information on exercises and tests	Ross Owens

Distribution List of ERP Recipients

The ERP “Basic Plan” will be available on the UIS Police Department’s web site. The ERP “Basic Plan” will be distributed to the following people:

ERP Recipient	Date Issued	Issued By
Chancellor	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Associate Chancellor for Strategic Communications	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Chief of Police	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities and Services	12/20/23	Ross Owens
University Legal Counsel	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Director of Community and Government Relations	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Environmental Health and Safety Officer	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Health Services	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Director of Housing and Residential Life	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Director Information Technology Services	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Director of University Food Service	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Exec. Director Counseling Center & Student Support Services	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Athletics and Campus Recreation	12/20/23	Ross Owens
Vice Chancellor of Finance & Administration	12/20/23	Ross Owens

Hazard Analysis

The State of Illinois Emergency Operations Plan “Basic Plan” from October 2021, identifies 15 primary hazards for prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation program relevancy.

Natural Hazards:

Severe Weather
Tornado
Flood
Drought
Extreme Heat
Severe Weather Storm
Earthquake

Technological Hazards:

Hazardous Materials – Chemical
Hazardous Materials – Radiological
Dam Failure

Human-Caused Hazards:

Terrorism – Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE)
Civil Disturbance
Cyber Attack
Agriculture Epidemic (NOS)
Public Health Epidemic (NOS)

(NOS = Not Otherwise Specified)

The Sangamon County Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan also includes the prioritized risks of the hazards identified. Response capabilities of the University of Illinois Springfield are sufficient to mitigate, respond to and recover from many types of emergencies and/or disasters. Any shortfalls in response capabilities are decreased and/or alleviated by interagency coordination with other first responder agencies within Sangamon County.

University of Illinois Springfield
Emergency Response Plan
“Basic Plan”

Introduction

The Campus Security Enhancement Act of 2008 mandates the creation and maintenance of an emergency response plan (110 ILCS 12/20(b)(1). It also requires partnering with the county or major municipal emergency management officials to annually review and update emergency response plans, protocols and procedures and conduct exercise drills to test the plan.

The following plan characterizes areas of responsibility and outlines an administrative framework to respond to campus incidents. This plan is fashioned to facilitate rapid, professional and supportive response to campus emergencies and allows for the campus community to quickly adapt to events as they unfold. It should be understood that individual campus units, schools, colleges and/or departments that occupy a specific building have a Building Emergency Action Plan (BEAP) to assist building occupants with their emergency planning response efforts. These plans and annual updates must be submitted to the University Police Department by September 30^th each calendar year.

Purpose

The purpose of the Emergency Response Plan (ERP) is to provide operational guidance for the University of Illinois Springfield’s mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery actions to prevent or minimize injury and/or death to people and damage to property resulting from emergencies and/or disasters of natural, manmade or technological origin.
The ERP considers response actions that may require a significant University of Illinois Springfield and/or Sangamon County response and/or a significant State of Illinois presence. A “significant presence” is defined as a situation that requires the immediate assistance of a county/state agency or agencies other than those that normally respond to day-to-day contingencies under separate authorities.
The level of emergency response will be determined by the need and magnitude of the disaster.

Assumptions

The University of Illinois Springfield officials recognize their responsibilities and duties with regard to maintaining the health, safety and welfare of the faculty, staff, students and visitors of the campus. These campus officials will assume their respective duties in implementing any section or part of the ERP.
Outdoor warning sirens and the UIS-Alert emergency notification system will be used to notify the campus populace in a timely manner if an emergency and/or disaster were to occur.
All departments and resources within the campus may be utilized during emergency and/or disaster operations. If these resources were inadequate in addressing the needs of the campus, additional assistance would have to be requested from nearby jurisdictions and/or the Sangamon County Office of Emergency Management and/or IEMA to return the campus to pre-emergency/disaster conditions.

Concept of Operations

The University of Illinois Springfield will utilize the Incident Command System (ICS) under the guidelines of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) for emergencies and/or disasters. All Command and General Staff functions will be filled with the most qualified individuals available at the time of the incident. (See 29 Il. Admin Code 305.40(b)(3)).

Four Phases of Emergency Management

Mitigation – Mitigation activities are those designed to either prevent the occurrence of an emergency or long-term activities to minimize the potential adverse effects of an emergency. Flood plain zoning, building code enforcement and urban drainage improvements are examples of mitigation activities.
Preparedness – Preparedness activities, programs and systems are those that exist prior to an emergency and are used to support and enhance response to an emergency or disaster. Planning, training and exercising are among the activities conducted under this phase.
Response – Response includes activities and programs designed to address the immediate and short-term effects of the onset of an emergency or disaster. It helps to reduce casualties and damage and to speed up recovery. Response activities include direction and control, warning, evacuation and other similar operations.
Recovery – Recovery is both short-term and long-term. Short-term operations seek to restore vital services to the community and provide for the basic needs of the public. Long-term recovery focuses on restoring the community to its normal condition or even to improved conditions. The recovery period is also an opportune time to institute mitigation measures, particularly those related to the recent emergency. Examples of recovery actions would be temporary food and shelter, restoration of non-vital government services and reconstruction of the damaged areas.

Summary of Overall Operations

Response organizations are typically trained to operate within their respective agency incident command structure but are rarely called upon to perform their duties as part of a unified command structure and integrated multi-organizational response such as that required for a possible emergency and/or disaster situation on the campus. Although a single Incident Commander normally handles the command function, an Incident Command System (ICS) organization may be expanded into a Unified Command (UC). The UC is a structure that brings together the “Incident Commanders” of all major organizations involved in the incident in order to coordinate an effective response while at the same time carrying out their own jurisdictional responsibilities. The UC links the organizations responding to the incident and provides a forum for these entities to make consensus decisions. Under the UC, the various jurisdictions and/or agencies and non-government responders may blend together throughout the operation to create an integrated response team.
First responders (i.e., police/fire/EMS) will often know first of an impending or actual emergency and/or disaster. They will notify Sangamon County Central Dispatch (9-1-1 Center for Sangamon County) of the impending or actual emergency and/or disaster. The University of Illinois Springfield Police Department Telecommunicator (Dispatcher) monitors the same radio frequencies as Sangamon County Central Dispatch and will contact the Chief of Police and/or designee to advise them of the situation. The Chief of Police and/or designee will then decide to what level the Incident Response and Recovery Team (IRRT) and /or Incident Command (IC) should be activated and what personnel need to be notified.
If the Chief determines that Incident Command should be activated, an Incident Command Post (ICP) will initially be established at or near the emergency and/or disaster site if safe to do so. The ICP can also function as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for smaller-scale emergencies and/or disasters. For large-scale emergencies and/or disasters, field personnel will communicate with the ICP, which will, in turn, communicate with personnel in the EOC to ensure overall coordination. A preliminary emergency and/or disaster intelligence report will be made by the IC and forwarded to the EOC as soon as possible.

Levels of Emergency Response

Level 1: Minor department or building incident – can be resolved by a responding service unit. (Examples: Physical Plant responds to a broken water pipe or short-term heating or electrical outage.)

Level 2: Department or building incident – can be resolved with existing University resources or limited outside assistance. These incidents are usually on dimension events having a limited duration and little impact except those using the space/building in which the incident occurs. (Examples: Minor chemical or fuel oil spills; loss of building heat or electricity for several hours; minor fire confined to a room and not involving hazardous chemicals; etc.)

Level 3: Primarily people, rather than infrastructure, focused incident – Many student issues can become complex because of varied institutional and student support responses that must be coordinated. For these situations, written departmental plans must be in place and implemented. (Examples: Assaults; sexual assaults; building/office occupation; hate crimes; bomb threats; etc.)

Level 4: Major emergency impacting a sizeable portion of the campus and/or outside community – These emergencies may be single or multi-hazard situations, and often require considerable coordination both within and outside the University. These emergencies include projected events on campus or in the general community that may develop into a major University crisis or a full-scale disaster. (Examples: Heating plant failure; extended power outage; severe storms; major fires; contagious disease outbreak; domestic water contamination; etc.)

Level 5: Catastrophic emergency involving the entire campus and surrounding community – Immediate resolution of the disaster, generally multi-hazard, is beyond the emergency response capabilities of campus and local resources. (Examples: Earthquake or tornado requiring State and/or Federal assistance.)

Declaration of Emergency Situation

A level 1 or 2 emergency may be declared and coordinated at the discretion of the unit director.
A level 3 emergency may be declared and coordinated by the Police Department.

The Chancellor, Chief of Police or any Command Staff Member are authorized to declare a Level 4 or Level 5 emergency when it is deemed necessary to place into effect emergency procedures and/or to close all or part of the University. This individual may also activate the UIS Incident Response and Recovery Team (IRRT) as the situation dictates.

Line of Succession and Implementing the Plan

The Chancellor or designee has the overall authority for implementing the ERP pursuant to an emergency and/or disaster. In most cases, the Chancellor or designee will coordinate/collaborate with the Chief of Police or designee to determine when the ERP should be implemented. The line of succession if the Chief of Police is unavailable is: 1.) Police Captain or 2.) Police Lieutenant. If those positions are unavailable, the Chancellor or any other Command Staff Member (see Section K) are authorized to declare a Level 4 or Level 5 emergency when deemed necessary to place into immediate effect emergency procedures and/or to close all or part of the University. This individual may also activate the IRRT as the situation dictates. All IRRT members may support emergency response and recovery efforts in collaboration with on-scene emergency personnel and provide necessary leadership, authority and responsibility consistent with the direction of the IC. The decision to implement the ERP will be based upon the probability or actual occurrence of an emergency and/or disaster that threatens the health, safety and/or welfare of the faculty, staff, students and visitors of the Campus. In this event, in most cases, the Chief of Police and/or designee will contact the Chancellor and members of the EOC deemed necessary in order to inform them of the situation and receive direction concerning implementation of the plan.

Emergency Response

Emergencies or potential emergency situations should be reported immediately to the UIS Police Department at 206-7777 (Emergency #) or 206-6690 (Non-emergency #.) UIS Police Telecommunications will follow a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). These procedures will be reviewed and updated annually; they will be followed for nearly all emergency situations.

Dispatch police officers and make appropriate fire and/or medical rescue calls.
Notify the Incident Commander (IC) and/or Chief of Police, one of whom will determine whether or not to initiate the emergency notification telephone call list or selectively notify individuals.
If the emergency call list is initiated, the Chief of Police will determine the appropriate level of response and to what extent the IRRT will become involved.

Some situations may require deviation, but in all situations full and complete communication with the Chancellor is required.

Level 1 or 2 Response

These levels of emergency response are incidents confined to a department or building and are usually resolved by a unit director. If the response requires additional resources, the unit director will notify other directors or utilize outside assistance. If life or safety is at risk, the Police Department will be notified by the unit director.

Level 3 Response

The UIS Police Department will notify the Chancellor (or designee), the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (or designee), and the Director of Media Strategy to allow them to evaluate all facets and potential ramifications of a Level 3 situation and to provide input on what actions should be taken.

Level 4 or 5 Response

If a Level 4 or 5 emergency has occurred or is imminent, the UIS Police Department shall notify and assemble the IRRT. In the absence of the Chief, the IC will assume the IRRT leadership responsibilities until the Chancellor (or designee) arrives. Prior to the IRRT arrival on campus, the IC is authorized to make necessary operational and response decisions and to commit resources to mitigate and control the crisis. UIS Police Department personnel are authorized to request immediate assistance from University Departments and personnel on an emergency basis, including asking staff to be reassigned from less critical assignments to assist officers.

Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

Level 4 or 5 emergencies require the Chief of Police or Incident Commander (IC) establish an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Normally, the EOC will be located in the Police Department Building and may be combined with the Incident Command Post. A secondary or alternate EOC can be established at other locations where necessary support facilities exist, including easy access to:

Telephone and communication services
Radio access via a scanning radio for all campus and local municipal frequencies
Campus computer network connections
Large scale campus map
Designated Fax machine

UIS Incident Response & Recovery Team (IRRT) Functions

The IRRT consists of Command Staff members and their primary function is to:

Gather, confirm & evaluate incident information
Define and implement tactics/actions to resolve specific priority situations
Identify resource needs
Reassign/deploy individuals in support of critical needs
Liaise with the Office of Media Strategy

Command Staff Members

Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Associate Chancellor for Strategic Communication / Chief of Staff
Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities and Services
General Counsel
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Director of Media Strategy
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration

Other University units and personnel may be asked to assist and support the IRRT as conditions dictate:

General Staff Members:

Environmental Health and Safety Officer
Head Nurse, Health Services
Director of Housing and Residential Life
Academic Deans & Directors
Athletic Director
Director of University Food Service
Director of Information Technology Services
Executive Director of Student Support Services
Others

Multi-Agency Response - Unified Command

As an emergency expands or contracts, changes in discipline, or becomes more or less complex, multiple outside agencies may respond. In the event an emergency and/or disaster expands beyond the ability and resources available within the campus, the Command Staff will request assistance from external agencies. Those agencies include, but are not limited to the following disciplines:

Emergency Management Agencies
Local, State, and Federal Law Enforcement
Fire Departments
Emergency Medical Services
Educational Institutions

Under these circumstances, personnel from local, State and Federal agencies will comprise a Unified Command and share the responsibility for incident management. Unified Command allows all major organizations with responsibility for an incident to establish a common set of incident objectives and strategies. Under Unified Command, the various jurisdictions and/or agencies and non-governmental responders blend together throughout the operation to create an integrated response team. The UIS Command Staff always remains in charge of UIS personnel and property and will direct and coordinate campus activities with outside agencies.

University Staff Responsibilities

Staff	Responsibilities
Academic Deans & Chairs	Identify and resolve instructional and research issues. Coordinate necessary faculty resources.
Athletics and Recreation	Coordinate use of the gymnasium(s) or other designated spaces as staging areas, open bay temporary shelter, and/or a temporary morgue.
Health Services	Provide back-up medical support. Assist in providing services to those with minor injuries and provide trauma support. Assist onsite medical triage if requested.
Printing/Duplicating and Mail Room	Provide courier services for Response and Management Team. Post signs and notices. Provide printed material as directed.
Physical Plant	Mitigate utility, facility and grounds damages, restoring to functional levels. Assist the police to create a safety perimeter(s) at the emergency site(s). Arrange for fit-up of temporary quarters for displaced units. Coordinate structural evaluations and repair estimates.
UIS PD	Evacuation, law enforcement, crowd control, site security and mobile communications. Liaise with fire and EMS.
Purchasing	Obtain emergency goods and services including coordination of pick-up and delivery to emergency site.
Residential Life	Coordinate housing operations including any temporary shelters.
Telecommunications	Coordinate temporary telephone, fax and computer hook-ups. Arrange phone bank for necessary student call-outs to family. Activate “800” number if necessary.
Media Strategy	University spokesperson and media coordination. –Internal & External-
University Food Service	Coordinate dining services for dislocated students, personnel and emergency workers.
University I-Card	Create new identification/access credentials as requested.
University Safety Officer	Assist in any biohazard incidents. Link with State Environmental Authorities as necessary.
University Risk Management	Assist in identifying scope of loss and coordinate/liaise on insurance issues.
Office of Web and Digital Strategy	Oversee the primary UIS Website. Post critical information and announcements on the Campus Homepage.
Provost’s Office	Ensure staffing of the Campus Switchboard

In some circumstances, it may be necessary to request faculty or staff to assume temporary roles outside the normal scope of their duties, taking into consideration their ability to carry out those temporary roles. Any department (i.e. Financial Aid, Admissions, etc.) not having a specific role for their personnel will automatically become part of a “pool” of reserve personnel to assist as assigned by the IRRT.

Emergency Communications & Information

Every effort will be made to keep the campus community and the public informed of developments during an emergency. Dissemination of timely information is essential for decision making, reducing anxiety and promoting a sense of well-being and security. The UIS Police Department can utilize the UIS-Alert System to notify the campus community of emergencies and give them further instructions. The system sends emergency messages via text, email, classroom phones, outdoor speakers, social media and on the campus television channel. Go to UIS-Alert @ Illinois Springfield to sign up.

Deactivation, Recovery & Continuity of Operations

When conditions have stabilized and normal campus operations can resume, this Emergency Response Plan will be deactivated. In most cases, the termination of the ERP lies solely with the Chancellor. In the absence of the Chancellor, any Command Staff Member may officially declare an end to the state of emergency after counsel and advice from the IRRT. An official announcement will be made. The Incident Commander will ensure the release and return of resources that are no longer required for the support of the emergency.

Individual units will refer to their unit Incident Action Plan (IAP) in an effort to maintain operations during and after an emergency. These plans are separate plans designed to complement this Emergency Response Plan and will likely operate concurrently with this plan. In the event of a conflict, this Campus Emergency Response Plan will prevail.

Each University Department/Unit will be responsible for assessing their appropriate damages and losses while prioritizing recovery efforts.

In the event of a Federal Declared Disaster, mitigation funding may be available through the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to reimburse losses that occurred during this specific event and prevent similar future losses.

Maps and Other References

The University of Illinois Springfield Police Department has a detailed, high resolution aerial campus map including the surrounding area provided by the Sangamon County Director of Emergency Management. The map has been laminated and is to be utilized during all incidents that require the activation of the Incident Command Post and/or Emergency Operations Center. There is also a detailed map of just the University of Illinois Springfield Campus and a detailed map of Lincoln Land Community College available to be utilized in the Incident Command Post and/or the Emergency Operations Center.

Citations to Legal Authorities

Legal Basis for Planning and Conducting All-Hazards Emergency Operations

The following laws and other source documents establish the legal basis for planning and carrying out all-hazards emergency responsibilities for the University of Illinois Springfield.

Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, as amended (Public Law 110-315)
Robert T. Stafford Disaster and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended (Public Law 93-288)
Illinois Campus Security Enhancement Act 110 ILCS 12/1, et seq
Illinois Good Samaritan Act (745 ILCS 49/1, et seq
Emergency Services, Disasters, and Civil Defense Administrative Rules (29 Ill.Adm.Code)
All Hazards Campus Emergency Plan and Violence Prevention Plan Administrative Rules (29 Ill.Adm.Code 305)
Sangamon County Office of Emergency Management Ordinance (Chapter 2.56)

Special Needs Population

DEFINITION

“Special needs population”, according to the National Response Framework, is defined as “Populations whose members may have additional needs before, during, and after an incident in functional areas, including but not limited to:

Maintain Independence
Communication
Transportation
Supervision
Medical Care

This definition seeks to establish a flexible framework that addresses a broad set of common function-based needs irrespective of specific diagnosis, statuses, or labels.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The University of Illinois Springfield acknowledges there are populations within the Campus with special requirements that must be considered in an emergency and/or disaster response. These groups include individuals with mobility impairments, hearing impairments, visual impairments, developmental disabilities and children in the day care.

EMERGENCY CONSIDERATIONS

In the event an emergency and/or disaster affects an area of Campus that contains known special needs populations, all reasonable operational considerations will be made to accommodate the unique requirements of the individual(s) with special needs. These considerations include, but are not limited to, emergency communications in coordination with the Campus Police Department, evacuation/shelter-in-place/lockdown procedures in coordination with the buildings Incident Action Plan protocols and other first responders (Police/Fire/EMS), mass care in coordination with the American Red Cross, health and medical in coordination with local hospitals, emergency medical service agencies, and any other applicable resources which will be coordinated through the Incident Command Post and/or Emergency Operations Center and/or the Sangamon County Emergency Operations Center at the time of the emergency/or disaster.

Exercises and Tests

UIS conducts exercises and/or tests, at least annually, to assess and evaluate emergency plans and capabilities. Each test will be documented with the following information:

Type of training exercise
Date and time
Whether the exercise was announced or unannounced
After action report
As follow-up to each exercise or test, follow-up items identified in the after-action report will be assigned to the appropriate campus entities.

Appendix A

Definitions (As used within the Campus Security Enhancement Act and the University of Illinois Springfield Campus Emergency Response Plan.)

“Act” means the Campus Security Enhancement Act of 2008 [110 ILCS 12]

“Campus” means any higher education facility that offers post-secondary education, including an annex or satellite campus away from the main campus, that includes, but is not limited to, rented classrooms in a commercial building or at a secondary school.

“Command Staff” means in an incident management organization, the Command Staff consists of the Incident Commander and the special staff positions of the Public Information Officer, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer, and other positions as required, who report directly to the Incident Commander. They may have assistants as needed.

“Disaster” means an occurrence or threat of widespread or severe damage, injury or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or technological cause, including but not limited to fire, flood, earthquake, wind, storm, hazardous materials spill or other water contamination requiring emergency action to avert danger or damage, epidemic, air contamination, blight, extended periods of severe inclement weather, drought, infestation, critical shortages of essential fuels and energy, explosion, riot, hostile military or paramilitary action, or acts of domestic terrorism. [20 ILCS 3305/4]

“Emergency” means a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action.

“Emergency Management” means the efforts of the higher education institutions to develop, plan, analyze, conduct, provide, implement and maintain programs for disaster/emergency mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

“Emergency Operations Center (EOC)” serves as a control point to coordinate operations in the event of a major emergency or disaster. Generally, the EOC interprets policy, coordinates the allocation of scarce resources, and provides broad direction to the response.

“Emergency Response Plan” means the written plan of a higher education institution describing the organization, mission and functions of the higher education institution and supporting services for responding to and recovering from disasters/emergencies.

“Evacuation” means organized, phased, and supervised withdrawal, dispersal, or removal of civilians from dangerous areas, and their reception and care in safe areas.

“Higher Education Institution” means a public university, a public community college, or an independent, not-for-profit or for-profit higher education institution located in this State. [110 ILCS 12/20(a)]

“Incident” means an occurrence or event, natural or human-caused, that requires an emergency response to protect life or property. Incidents can include major disasters, emergencies, terrorist attacks, terrorist threats, wild land and urban fires, floods, hazardous materials spills, nuclear accidents, aircraft accidents, earthquakes, tornados, winter storms, public health and medical emergencies, and other occurrences requiring an emergency response.

“Incident Action Plan (IAP)” An oral or written plan containing general objectives reflecting the overall strategy for managing an incident.

“Incident Command” means a system that combines facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications to operate within a common organizational structure and that designates responsibility for the management of assigned resources to effectively accomplish stated campus goals and objectives.

“Incident Commander (IC)” means the individual responsible for the management of all campus incident command operations as provided for by law.

“Incident Command Staff” A group of incident management personnel organized according to function and reporting to the Incident Commander. The Incident Command Staff normally consist of the Operations Section, Planning Section, Logistics Section, and Finance/Administration Section.

“Incident Command System (ICS)” A modular system that builds dependent upon the type and magnitude of the incident. It is a method of organizing and coordinating emergency services, facilitating the objectives of scene management, personnel safety and control for the systematic protection of life and property in an efficient and professional manner.

“Incident Response and Recovery Team (IRRT)” A group of Command Staff that facilitates a professional and supportive response to campus emergencies and allows for the campus community to quickly adapt and recover to normal operations.

“National Incident Management System (NIMS)” means the comprehensive, national approach to incident management that is applicable at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines. It provides a consistent nationwide template to enable all government, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work together during domestic incidents. (See Homeland Security Presidential Directive – 5)

“Preparedness” means actions taken and programs and systems developed prior to a disaster/emergency to support and enhance response to and recovery from a disaster.

“Recovery” means restoration actions and programs associated with recovering from a disaster/emergency, including, but not limited to, academic recovery, physical/structural recovery, business/fiscal recovery and psychological/emotional recovery for students and campus personnel.

“Response” means the actions taken to address the immediate and short-term effects of a disaster/emergency.

“Unified Command” An application of the Incident Command System used when there is more than one agency with incident jurisdiction or when incidents cross political jurisdictions. Agencies work together through the Unified Command to establish a common set of objectives and strategies from a single Incident Action Plan.

Incident Command Post: Positioned outside of the present and potential hazard area, but close enough to the incident to maintain command.

Staging Area: The location where personnel and equipment are kept while waiting for tactical assignment.

Emergency Response Guidelines