Emergency Preparedness
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is committed to the safety and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to our campuses. To support that commitment, we formed an Emergency Management Team, which worked with university officials to develop an emergency management plan. The plan has been reviewed and approved by officials from the New Hampshire Division of Public Safety.
The Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs and Public Safety serves as the leader of the Emergency Management Team. The team also includes representatives from Public Safety, Facilities, Residence Life, and Marketing and Communications. Members meet regularly to keep the emergency management plan current, conduct training exercises, and provide resources for the campus community. The Emergency Management Team includes members who have been trained in and assigned to specific Incident Command System (ICS) functions, such as Operations, Logistics, Planning, and Finance/Administration.
Most campus emergencies involve medical incidents, accidents, or acts of violence and are managed by first responders, including Public Safety, Residence Life, and Wellness Center staff, along with local police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel as needed. The Student Affairs Division maintains an emergency procedures manual that outlines protocols for these situations. First responders receive specialized training to respond effectively to these types of events. These typically student-centered issues differ from situations in which the Emergency Management Team is activated. Such situations involve extraordinary and unpredictable events, such as floods, tornadoes, long-term power outages, or fires, that may affect the university's operations and business continuity. When incidents like these occur, members of the Emergency Management Team immediately assess the situation and determine whether activation of the team is necessary.
SNHU has adopted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) as its framework for the prevention of, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from natural or human-caused crises. ICS provides a flexible and scalable framework that can expand or contract as needed. Simply stated, the scope of the incident drives the decision regarding whether to activate a few members or the entire team to respond to and recover from an incident.
To learn more about emergency preparedness at SNHU, please contact Public Safety.