| A descriptive study of emergency management planning at public senior institutions of higher education with enrollments of 5,000 or more was carried out within the framework of four planning elements: (a)objectives, (b)strategies, policies and plans, (c)organization, and (d)review and evaluation. Institutional size and proportion of students who live in campus housing (residency) were used as variables in analysis of the data.; An Emergency Management Planning Survey instrument was developed by the investigator to collect information from staff members selected by presidents of the 312 institutions in the target population. Response from 166 institutions (53.2 percent) were analyzed.; The findings indicated that emergency management planning at colleges and universities had increased overall within the past ten years. Administrators at nearly one-third of the institutions considered emergency management planning of major importance. Most institutions were active in planning, even though they utilized various approaches.; Responsibility for emergency management planning was assigned to a wide variety of institutional offices or agencies. Most commonly, supervisory responsibility rested with vice presidents for administration, operations, business, or finance. Direct responsibility most frequently was assigned to Directors of Security, Safety, or Environmental Health.; Analysis revealed significant differences at the .10 level within each of the four planning elements according to size and residency. Neither of the variables, however, was seen to have a persistent effect throughout the planning process.; The investigator concluded that (a)institutions in the target population recognize the importance of emergency management planning, (b)they have the necessary abilities and resources to plan, (c)they are involved in emergency management planning, and (d)such planning is less centralized and more diverse than in other types of communities. Recommendations included expanded study of emergency management planning at colleges and universities and greater sharing of information among institutions. |
