H-150.1 Emergency Preparedness

The College shall use the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as its standard, coordinated, and systematic method for incident management. The Director of Safety, Security, and Risk Management is responsible for ensuring the NIMS approach is incorporated into the College's preparedness practices, helping the College Community prepare for, respond to, recover from, and reduce the effects of incidents and potential incidents whether they are intentional, accidental, or natural.

In recognition that the College must be prepared to respond to an emergency when it occurs, the President/District Director will:

• Ensure senior leadership and Employees with functional responsibilities associated with incident management are trained in the NIMS and their role as part of a Critical Incident Response.

• Routinely conduct an all-hazard exercise to improve overall college response and integration with local response agencies and emergency management.

• Develop and maintain an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) that outlines procedures for assisting Employees in responding to emergencies.

• Work closely with local emergency agencies to develop and revise the ERP and inform them of the College’s emergency response strategies.

• Communicate the ERP and any changes in procedures to Employees on an annual

• basis.

• Ensure that emergency procedures impacting Students are placed in the College Catalog and BTC Student/Handbook/Calendar and presented annually at Student orientation.

• Develop and maintain a plan for recovery and continuity of operations.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND EVACUATION PROCEDURES

General information about the College's emergency response and evacuation procedures is publicized each year as part of the College’s Clery Act compliance efforts. That information is available on the Safety and Security page of the College’s website.

All members of the College Community are notified on an annual basis that they are required to notify 911 and the Office of Safety and Security of any incident on campus that involves a significant emergency or dangerous situation that may involve an immediate or ongoing threat to the health and safety of Students and Employees on campus. Security Officers are responsible for responding to and summoning the necessary resources to mitigate, investigate, and document any situation that may cause a significant or dangerous emergency.  In addition, Security Officers are responsible for responding to such incidents to determine if the situation threatens the College Community.  If so, federal law requires that the institution immediately notify the campus community or the appropriate College Community segments that may be affected by the situation.

Upon confirmation or verification by the College that a legitimate emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of Students or Employees occurring on campus, the College will determine the content of the message and will use some or all of the systems described below to communicate the threat to the College Community or the appropriate segment of the College Community, if the threat is limited to a particular building or segment of the population. The College will, without delay, consider the safety of the College Community, determine the content of the notification, and initiate the notification system, unless issuing a notification will, in the judgment of the first responders, compromise the efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.

In the event of a serious incident that poses an immediate threat to the College Community, the College has various systems in place for communicating information quickly.  Some or all these methods of communication may be activated in the event of an immediate threat to the College Community. These methods of communication include Safe Alerts to network emails and emergency text messages that can be sent to a phone, the public address system, emergency messages that scroll on digital display bars, and the College website. The College will post updates during a critical incident on the College website at blackhawk.edu.   Students and Employees are automatically enrolled in Safe Alerts, which sends messages to the network email account. To add text messaging to Safe Alerts, log in to myBTC, click Emergency Notices (Quick Links), and then update notification preferences.  

The College’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communication will use media alerts to disseminate emergency information to the larger community.

TESTING EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND EVACUATION PROCEDURES

The Office of Campus Safety and Security coordinates an evacuation drill for all College Premises at least once per semester. Students learn the locations of the emergency exits in the buildings and are guided in the direction they should travel when exiting College Premises for a short-term building evacuation. Security Officers do not establish locations for evacuation in advance because those decisions are affected by the time of day, in the

location of the building being evacuated, the availability of the various designated emergency gathering locations on campus, and other factors such as the location and nature of the threat. In both cases, the Office of Campus Safety and Security and Employees on the scene will communicate information to Students regarding the developing situation or any evacuation status changes.

The Office of Campus Safety and Security and Administration monitors evacuation drills to evaluate egress and behavioral patterns. Participating departments prepare reports identifying deficient equipment so that repairs can be made immediately. Recommendations for improvements are also submitted to the appropriate departments and offices for consideration.

The College conducts numerous announced and unannounced annual drills and exercises and conducts follow-through activities designed to assess and evaluate emergency plans and capabilities. The Office of Safety and Security and Administration coordinates announced and unannounced evacuation drills at least once per semester, as described above, to test the emergency response and evacuation procedures and to assess and evaluate the emergency evacuation plans and capabilities. For each test conducted, the Director of Safety, Security, and Risk Management will document a description of the exercise, the date, time, and whether it was announced or unannounced. The College will publish a summary of its emergency response and evacuation procedures in conjunction with at least one (1) drill or exercise each calendar year.