Prior to last month’s shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech, WSU emergency management staff had included in its budget request funds for updating Pullman’s emergency notification system.
According to Richard Heath, senior associate vice president for business affairs, at a “table-top” simulation last fall, members of the executive team and emergency management committee recognized that, although WSU Alerts is an effective e-mail communication tool, the university also needs to be able to communicate with people on campus who are not signed on to the e-mail system.
Last month, the university decided to use some of the safety funds allocated to it for the upcoming biennium to install both a public address/siren system and a more comprehensive emergency notification system that would tap into multiple technologies, including telephone and cell phone notifications, faxes, pagers, voice mail messages and text messaging. According to Heath, emergency staff is in the process of writing requests for proposals for both those systems with the goal of having them installed before fall semester.
The public address and siren system is expected to cost about $130,000 for the Pullman campus and will consist of four to five units located across the campus. The startup cost for the multiplatform notification system would be about $35,000. Costs for the other campuses and the major research stations have not been estimated, but will be included in the request for proposals.
“We’re looking at every possible way of getting the information out,” Heath said.
One system under consideration is PIER (Public Information and Emergency Response), owned by AudienceCentral in Bellingham, Wash. Used by the University of Houston, the U.S. Coast Guard, BP Oil and other major agencies and institutions, PIER is a web-based multiplatform information system.
“There are a lot of these systems out there,” Heath said. “There’s a lot of competition.”
The most recent budget also included $155,000 to create an address system for the Pullman campus that is compatible and consistent with the City of Pullman system and also E911 requirements. Currently, Heath said, emergency responders need to be familiar with campus buildings or have a map handy because without specific street addresses the buildings won’t show up on Mapquest or a similar locator program.
Chris Tapfer, WSU’s emergency management coordinator, is the point man for much of the university’s emergency planning. Emergency planning at WSU is ongoing and extensive, Tapfer said, and involves the work of faculty and staff at every level of the university. The emergency management committee, made up of 25 representatives across many areas of the university, meets regularly to review, update and assess emergency preparedness.
In 2002 the committee created an emergency response planning template that each unit was required to complete and review on an annual basis. The universitywide planning is important, Tapfer said, but the unit planning is equally essential.
It is also important that emergency plans be periodically updated and practiced, he said. As an example, table-top exercises are planned for most colleges and administrative units over the next several months.
According to Tapfer, the majority of emergencies that will occur have been and will continue to be located within a particular laboratory or building — a small chemical spill, a jammed elevator, an electrical fire, a heart attack. But occasionally there is a large scale emergency, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens, that requires broader emergency response.
Each unit or department knows which type of emergency it is most likely to experience, he said, and that’s why each department needs to have its own plan and know how to implement it.
In addition to working with units and departments on campus to develop and implement emergency procedures, for the past year Tapfer has been helping lead preparation of a hazard mitigation plan for all locations of WSU statewide, a plan that is funded by a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant WSU applied for and received.
