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Ready Campus News Releases
June 2, 2004 Ready Campus Project Announced
"Ready Campus," as the project is called, was developed by a group of planners, including Pennsylvania Campus Compact, College Misericordia, Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security, the American Red Cross, the Pennsylvania Association of College and Universities (PACU) and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP).
"Ready Campus is designed to help higher education institutions in Pennsylvania, and eventually across the country, collaborate with communities and relief agencies to ensure the safety and public health of American citizens and to prepare the citizens of tomorrow to serve their neighbors in times of crisis," says Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell. "I encourage all colleges and universities in the Commonwealth to participate in this critically important project."
Funding stems from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency via the federal government's Urban Area Security Initiative-Discretionary Grant Program.
The project includes training sessions for higher education and community participants, to be held next fall and spring at College Misericordia and sites in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Harrisburg; a manual for developing campus-community emergency response partnerships; development of service learning curricula; and mini-grants for planning by campus-community partners. The result will be college campuses that are prepared to help their communities in times of need and that produce graduates who understand service to the community as part of their academic major.
"College Misericordia's response during the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood demonstrates how a college campus can serve as a valuable resource to the community during a crisis," said Dr. Michael MacDowell, president of the college. ³With a greater focus on crisis readiness today, the lessons forged out of necessity in 1972 can be thoughtfully planned and developed. We all recognize that there are new and real threats, and the leaders of the state's higher education institutions have a very strong interest in helping to ensure the safety of our communities."
"The state's colleges and universities have an historic civic purpose, but Ready Campus is a different kind of effort," said James Birge, executive director of Pennsylvania Campus Compact, the oldest and largest coalition of presidents committed to the civic purpose of higher education in the U.S. "This project will expand dramatically the role of colleges and universities as resources for their host communities during times of emergency," Birge said.
Training sessions will be led by experts in risk management, civic engagement, disaster planning, service-learning, and volunteer mobilization. They will discuss with campus safety directors how they can make available residence and dining halls, infirmaries, telecommunications infrastructures and other facilities during an emergency. They will also discuss how faculty, staff, students, and alumni can provide volunteer services and support the initiatives of the American Red Cross and PEMA during unexpected catastrophic events.
To help create a cadre of graduates who are ready, willing, and able to supplement existing volunteer services when needed, courses incorporating disaster relief information will be developed by faculty in multiple disciplines. This service-learning approach will give students hands-on experience in relating their coursework to helping others in times of crisis. The service-learning component of Ready Campus is designed to have long-lasting effects, producing graduates who understand the concepts of crisis management as volunteers and professionals. The concepts can be applied across a wide variety of academic majors. The courses will be introduced in the 2005-2006 academic year.
Keith Martin, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security, said his office worked with AICUP and PACU to mail a survey to college and university presidents in the state. The presidents indicated overwhelmingly strong interest in having their institutions serve as resources for Pennsylvania communities in times of regional or national emergencies, and in having their staffs attend training meetings to develop and refine campus emergency response plans.
"Pennsylvania needs Ready Campus," Martin said. The theme in our state is 'relentless vigilance,' and the more we have people involved and alert, but not alarmed, the safer and better prepared our communities will be. We hope Ready Campus is a success, and the model can be exported to other states."
"There are thousands of men, women and families who work tirelessly to make Pennsylvania a safe place to live and prosper," said David Sanko, executive director of PEMA. "Ready Campus adds yet another critical piece‹higher education‹to our overall crisis readiness."
Specific information on Ready Campus will be mailed to Pennsylvania's colleges and universities over the next few months. For more information, go to readycampus.org, or contact Pennsylvania Campus Compact at 717-796-5072.
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