University Preparedness

Realizing the very real threats posed to college campuses, in recent years, institutions of higher education have begun to design and implement formal plans for dealing with disasters. These plans typically consist of two parts, which may be administered in whole or in part by different administrative entities within the university. While the nomenclature varies from institution to institution, they typically include some sort of business continuity plan, and a plan specifically designed for the protection of library holdings. Having some sort of continuity plan in place is critical in preplanning for the eventuality of a disaster, and minimizing harm both to members of the community and the institution as a whole. Furthermore, many institutions of higher education encourage individual administrative units within the university to develop their own preparedness plans, so that these units may operate autonomously to protect their own interests during a crisis or disaster.

The main objective of any business continuity and contingency plan at a university is to create a set of [Page 754]procedures and protocols that will protect the university administrative unit's capacity to function effectively in the event of a disaster and subsequent disruption to normal operations.

These disruptions may be the product of any one of a number of sources, including (but not limited to) natural disasters, equipment failures, and acts of malice (such as hacking, arson, assault, acts of terror). While events such as these are by definition unexpected and novel, the existence of a business continuity plan allows individual campus units to resume operations quickly and minimize damage to resources and harm to individuals. These efforts can be loosely classified as loss prevention plans and disaster recovery plans.

Loss recovery plans are those plans enacted by the unit to minimize its exposure to elements of risk that threaten to undermine the operations of the unit, safety of affiliated individuals, or physical resources essential to the unit's operation. Disaster recovery planning, on the other hand, centers on a set of behaviors and actions that must take place in the aftermath of a disaster or crisis in order to restore the function of the unit in the event that a loss of function has taken place; in other words, it represents the actions that must be taken to return to a sense of normalcy following a crisis or disaster. The aim of such a continuity plan is not to develop prescriptive plans of action for all possible threats, but rather to articulate common goals, risks, and elements of any disaster that must be addressed in a given situation. These may include loss of or harm to personnel, physical resources, data, and infrastructure. The plan should ideally specify a set of actions that must be undertaken in the event of a major disruption in order to ensure that the unit can resume routine activities in a minimal amount of time.