Eastern Michigan UniversityDigitalCommons@EMU
Senior Honors Theses Honors College
2012
Emergency Management in Higher Education:Challenges and SolutionsRobert C. MorfordEastern Michigan University
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This Open Access Senior Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@EMU. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Recommended CitationMorford, Robert C., "Emergency Management in Higher Education: Challenges and Solutions" (2012). Senior Honors Theses. 289.http://commons.emich.edu/honors/289
Emergency Management in Higher Education: Challenges and Solutions
AbstractTragic events throughout the world such as the Columbine High School Shooting of 1999, Beslan ElementarySchool terrorist attacks in 2004, the Virginia Tech Shootings of 2007 and numerous natural disasters haveforced a stark conclusion: Our schools are not impenetrable (Gidduck 2005). A new field has emerged tocombat this problem, Emergency Management. Through the late 20th and early 21st century, EmergencyManagement has been increasing its presence on the campuses of our Institutions of Higher Education.However, these programs face four main challenges that hinder their progress: budget and finances, executivesupport, training and exercises, and their placement in the organizational chart. For Emergency Managementto be fully effective on campus, the Emergency Manager must intentionally integrate his/her work within thepolitical relationships, that is the power and influence relationships, on campus. Emergency Managers need tofocus on the political aspect of their job in order to institutionalize Emergency Management. They canaccomplish this by using three best practices, consistent documentation, intentional building of executivesupport, and development of positive community linkages.
Degree TypeOpen Access Senior Honors Thesis
DepartmentPolitical Science
First AdvisorDr. Joseph Ohren
Second AdvisorDr. Edward Sidlow
This open access senior honors thesis is available at DigitalCommons@EMU: http://commons.emich.edu/honors/289