Where Colleges are Failing in Crisis Planning
From The College of New Jersey to Memphis, St. Johns, Wisconsin-Madison, William & Mary and many others, college and university campuses are scrambling to upgrade student warning systems quickly for use in times of crisis.
Most have implemented a combination of campus-wide siren alert systems, reverse 911 calls, mass email protocol, text messaging systems and door-to-door alerts. These efforts are long overdue and we applaud them.
We hope institutions aren’t failing initially to segment audiences, which would show that faculty, staff and students should be the first notified in times of crisis – but there are more stakeholders that deserve outreach.
While sirens blast warnings campus-wide, institutions also should employ concurrent crisis communications to reach parents and loved ones of faculty, staff and students; alumni; donors; opinion leaders and the business community locally; elected officials and others.
Good crisis planning demands audience segmentation: who are the most important constituents an institution must reach in times of crisis, and what is the most effective way to send constant, accurate and clear updates?
We have templates on our website you can download to assist you in this process. Simply alerting students and those on campus is only half of the crisis battle.