2008 Woodie Awards
Pandemic Disaster Plan proposed by senior staff
Emily Rabson
Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: News
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The College has just released a safety plan should any type of pandemic or disaster occur on the campus.
President Helm realizes that although such a disaster has not yet occurred, with hopes that one will not occur in the future, determining how best to respond to a pandemic safely is something the College should be considering. "The time to plan for an emergency is well before the emergency occurs," explained President Helm. Karen Green, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs agreed that "The College must be proactive and prepare before anything occurs."
"While we hope that it is never needed, we understand that the possibility of a pandemic is very real and we will need to think carefully about how the College community will respond (in cooperation with local, regional, national officials and health organizations) to protect the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and neighbors," said Helm.
Numerous people have given suggestions to such a plan in the past. Helm notes that, "It is certainly something that many of us have been concerned about for well over a year."
Planning for a disaster is difficult because it is impossible to know what damage will exist in any given scenario, or how it will affect the lives of faculty and students. "The plan has various responses/actions that will be implemented in response to specific threat levels determined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as local authorities," said President Helm. The problems would probably not exist at a merely local level, but a much larger part of the country. "Examples include the development of alternate management plans for departments (in case various key managers are out of action), 'social distancing' policies (policies restricting large gatherings of individuals to reduce the spread of contagion), access to and distribution of medicine, food, water, etc. Most of these would not be necessary unless there was an actual pandemic--but the plans need to be available in advance just in case."
President Helm realizes that although such a disaster has not yet occurred, with hopes that one will not occur in the future, determining how best to respond to a pandemic safely is something the College should be considering. "The time to plan for an emergency is well before the emergency occurs," explained President Helm. Karen Green, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs agreed that "The College must be proactive and prepare before anything occurs."
"While we hope that it is never needed, we understand that the possibility of a pandemic is very real and we will need to think carefully about how the College community will respond (in cooperation with local, regional, national officials and health organizations) to protect the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and neighbors," said Helm.
Numerous people have given suggestions to such a plan in the past. Helm notes that, "It is certainly something that many of us have been concerned about for well over a year."
Planning for a disaster is difficult because it is impossible to know what damage will exist in any given scenario, or how it will affect the lives of faculty and students. "The plan has various responses/actions that will be implemented in response to specific threat levels determined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as local authorities," said President Helm. The problems would probably not exist at a merely local level, but a much larger part of the country. "Examples include the development of alternate management plans for departments (in case various key managers are out of action), 'social distancing' policies (policies restricting large gatherings of individuals to reduce the spread of contagion), access to and distribution of medicine, food, water, etc. Most of these would not be necessary unless there was an actual pandemic--but the plans need to be available in advance just in case."