C² TECHNOLOGIES, SIX COLLEGES TEST FEMA CAMPUS EMERGENCY TRAINING PROGRAM

(VIENNA, VA – August 12, 2009) C² Technologies, Inc., in partnership with a half-dozen higher education institutions, has tested and collected feedback on an engaging Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) training course that will prepare school officials and response team personnel to anticipate and react to emergency situations on their campuses.

The goal of this uniquely innovative program—officially titled “E363 Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education”—is providing learning institutions with knowledge and planning strategies to more efficiently and effectively protect lives, property, and operations within the context of comprehensive emergency management.  To this end, the course presents nine units of instruction spanning such content as an introduction to emergency management, identifying threats and risks, assembling an EOP and response team, and engaging the campus community.

At the pinnacle of the learning experience is a pair of immersive scenarios that simulate a campus fire that upon further investigation is revealed to be a potential terrorist bombing—as well as a hypothetical press conference where participants face and address media questions, and are videotaped for later analysis.  These simulations were tested at six East Coast schools late last month, with feedback review underway in advance of the program’s anticipated nationwide deployment in FY 2010.

Additional coverage:

Frederick News-Post

Campus safety focus of FEMA training plan

By Marge Neal
News-Post Staff
Originally published July 30, 2009

An explosion and subsequent fire wracked a college campus. Injuries and fatalities were piling up and more help was needed. And then came the worst news of all -- a terrorist group was claiming responsibility and told college officials more bombs were planted across the campus.

This was not a real-life situation but rather an exercise, part of a three-day emergency planning workshop at Mount St. Mary's University this week.

Representatives from six colleges and universities participated in the pilot program "Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education" presented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Developing a comprehensive, uniform emergency plan for colleges and universities was spurred by such violent events as the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings where 32 people died before the lone gunman killed himself, but schools need these plans for many reasons, according to Barbara Nelson, a FEMA training specialist.

Higher education institutions must be prepared to deal with natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, as well as man-made disasters and acts of violence or terrorism.

She noted the extensive damage to Tulane University in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as an example of natural disasters that can turn a college operation upside-down and put lives in peril.

FEMA hired C2 Technologies to develop the program curriculum, which has been a year in the making, Nelson said.

When the curriculum was ready to be tested, the Mount offered to host a pilot program. Invitations were sent to about 15 colleges and universities within 50 miles.

Millersville University, Gettysburg College, Frederick Community College, Howard University and the University of Maryland, College Park, all offered to be guinea pigs for the course.

During the simulated fire and explosion, Bob McKibben, a contractual instructor for C2 Technologies, said the group was doing a great job.

"This group came in with varying degrees of experience in emergency management," he said. "They've learned a lot here and I'm pleased with how they have reacted."

Half the group played university officials reacting to the on-campus incident and the other half played support staff in the emergency operations center, providing what the people in the field needed to manage and contain the incident.

The catastrophe was scripted, but the operations center staff had no idea what to expect, McKibben said.

"They came in here completely blind to the scenario," he said.

The group burst into applause at the conclusion of the session.

The course is designed to provide colleges and universities with knowledge and strategies to protect lives, property and operations more effectively and efficiently, according to the syllabus.

Barry Titler, director of public safety at the Mount, said the course will benefit the university which already has an emergency response plan in place.

The benefits of participating in the pilot course, which started Tuesday and ends today, are two-fold, Titler said.

"In this business, you want to learn from everyone. We're able to borrow ideas that other schools have that are proven to work."

Comments and suggestions from participants could improve the course before it is published and offered to all colleges and universities. FEMA hopes to launch the final version in the fall.

"We can affect not only this campus, but indirectly be able to affect the safety of campuses across the country," Titler said.

UM Newsdesk

UM Helps Test FEMA's Emergency Training for Universities

By Lauren Brown
August 3, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - How would the university respond if a terrorist group set off a bomb in a residence hall - and threatened to detonate more explosives across the campus?

Who would work with the police and government agencies racing to investigate? What supplies does the university need to get to the scene? How would panicked parents get information?

These were some of the challenges posed to six Maryland staff members and officials from five other colleges from across the region, last week when they tested a new course to be offered nationwide by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

The three-day training brings together not just traditional first responders, like university police, firefighters and EMTs, but also high-level administrators, health officials and counselors, communications staff members and information technology specialists to coordinate resources and set policy in the wake of an emergency or natural disaster. Barbara Nelson, a FEMA training specialist, says that the shootings in 2008 at Northern Illinois University and in 2007 at Virginia Tech and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the need to help universities develop an emergency operations plan.

The class, says Maj. Jim Hamrick, commander of the university's training and special operations bureau, "provides an opportunity for participants to see the importance of having an emergency operations plan, which we already have in place here, and it shows ways we can test that plan and what training opportunities may derive from that."

The director of the university's public safety academy, Hamrick put together a team of employees who could be called into action, representing a broad spectrum of departments and professions: William Corrigan, a life safety supervisor in Facilities Management and a volunteer firefighter; John Farley, assistant vice president of administrative affairs; Jonathan Kandel, assistant director of the Counseling Center; Maureen Kotlas, director of environmental safety; Marty Newman, assistant director of procurement; and Millree Williams, senior director of public affairs strategy.

They joined officials from Frederick Community College, Gettysburg College, Howard University, Millersville University and the host, Mount St. Mary's University, in Emmittsburg, to take part in the pilot program, which lead instructor Jim Reseburg says was a year in the making. He's a contractual instructor for C² Technologies, which FEMA hired to develop the course.

Its centerpiece was the emergency simulation of the terrorist attack by the fictitious Federation to Liberate Universities, or FLU. Its bomb had killed 10 students and injured 23, the dormitory building was still on fire, and it wasn't clear where additional bombs were.

Half of the class participants were sent to one room that functioned as a control center, while the other half called in acting as university administrators, first responders, parents or media.

"We stressed them out for two and a half hours," says Reseburg.

The following day, the participants had to hold a press conference summarizing all they had done to respond to the crisis, and Reseburg says they did a "wonderful" job.

Newman, who runs the university's credit card program, says she knew nothing about emergency preparedness before she took the online course required in advance of attending this course. For the simulation she served as head of logistics, an experience that's really outside of what I do every day.

"It was very stressful and very rewarding," she says. "It brought back a lot of the training I got at University College in management training, and as a procurement officer, and it tied it all up nice and neat."

C² Technologies is reviewing the feedback that participants submitted, and will tweak the course before it's offered through FEMA at colleges and universities in fiscal year 2010, Reseburg says. Maryland has already offered to host it for other universities, as well as for more of its own employees. "There's a great interest in this, in being prepared," Nelson says. "Everybody's got the same goal of keeping their student population and staff safe and out of harm's way."

About C² Technologies, Inc.

Since 1989, C² Technologies, Inc. has partnered with its Federal Government, defense, and commercial customers to deliver innovative performance improvement solutions that span diverse practice areas, such as training and development, strategic human resources management, mission-critical outsourcing, and information technology.  Headquartered in Vienna, VA, C²'s 300 employees serve clients in 22 locations.  For more information about C² Technologies, visit www.c2ti.com or call (703) 448-7900.

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