Preparing for a Perfect Storm
Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education:
Building a Future on the Foundation of its Past with Emergency Preparedness
By Rob Minearo
Preparing for a "Perfect Storm" with a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan requires a close-up view of the building blocks that created a powerhouse cooperative endeavor like the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education...(continue)
The Magic Pill
The Rising Costs of Employee Benefits Are Easier to Swallow When Coated in Cooperation
By Charles Dyson
A prominent national publication recently ran a piece about the rising tuition costs in higher education. The numbers were staggering, but the report highlighted colleges and universities that were some of the most expensive institutions in America, and didn’t really reflect the other eighty percent of colleges in the United States, many of which are still affordable... (continue)
Bridging the Divide
By Stacy Stryjewski
When I first sat down to write this column, I did what most experienced writers do…Google® the topic. After several rounds of search criteria, I came upon links that highlighted “Academia vs. Industry” and “Academia vs. ‘The Real World’.” I was surprised to see it in writing—“the real world.” The artificial battle sounds a bit like a scene from
The Matrix, where professors and scholars have mistakenly settled for the red pill and now live in a world where classrooms hold pods disguised as students. I exaggerate the point but it does seem like a statement of challenge that places academics in a position of self-justification and alienation...
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Value of Consortium Buying
By Jake Bishop
Sometimes there is confusion about the benefits of group purchasing organizations (GPO). Let me explain what it is and is not. It is not a competitor that is trying to replace you as purchasing agent! It is a group of people working full time for your benefit. A GPO is a facilitator that creates and manages group purchasing contracts to streamline the buying process, helping with day to day needs, freeing you up to concentrate on areas where you can devote more time and add more value. A GPO compliments your department, it doesn’t compete. Group Purchasing Organizations do not do the buying for you. Contracts are tools that you can use to speed up customer service to your end users. The good work that is accomplished is to your credit...
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Narrowing the Gap Between Success and Disaster
By Bryan Crum
A single tragic day at Virginia Tech highlighted the need to shorten the response time in a crisis from hours to seconds. Frequent quotes from students at Virginia Tech during the dreadful April day were, “I didn’t know what was going on,” and “I just wanted to know what to do.” Communicating ongoing vital news, information, and instructions during a disaster to the entire campus community without delay has become critical. The cost of an emergency communication system might seem out of reach for many colleges, but through partnering with other institutions it might be more affordable than you think...(continue)
Crisis Communications
Planning Makes It Easier to Weather a Storm
By Michael Stoner
For CEOs, communicators, and other senior staff on campuses, a major lesson of the shootings at Virginia Tech is that an active crisis is no time to find out that you aren't prepared for it. Since then, crisis contingency planning has been an ongoing topic of workshops, seminars, conferences, and listservs...(continue)
Lawrence G. Dotolo, Ph.D., Executive Director
The Association for Consortium Leadership (ACL) is the national organization for consortia that actively promotes cooperation in higher education. ACL is a proactive association that provides professional development, which includes monthly webinars (professional development workshops) on important issues impacting cooperation in higher education; consulting services; a list serve for discussion among ACL members; and an annual conference. ACL is the only association of its kind that serves higher education consortia. ACL is comprised of sixty-two consortia members representing over 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide...(continue)
Emergency Preparedness at the University of Connecticut
Cooperative Emergency Management at UConn is the Strength Behind the Bells and Whistles
By Lesley Dyson
Many important developments emerged in the United States on college and university campuses in response to the events of September 11, 2001, and, seven years later, to the Virginia Tech shootings. One of the most important impacts 9/11 and Virginia Tech had on higher education was to strip away the innocence academia had taken for granted that created a safe world for students to learn, to discover, and to aspire to their greatest abilities...
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Building Campus Preparedness and Resilience
United States Academe at Risk
Todd I. Stewart, Ph.D.
America’s colleges and universities are at risk from both natural disasters and intentional attacks that can temporarily interrupt academic operations for days or weeks or even result in permanent closure of the institution. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005 impacted more than 30 post-secondary institutions. Now, almost 2-1/2 years after our nation’s most devastating natural disaster, many of these institutions are still struggling to regain enrollments and tuition revenue, attract replacement faculty, recover research programs, and restore or replace damaged infrastructure. It is not yet clear that all of these institutions will even survive...
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Cooperation Might Be Your Best Bet for Funding
By Rob Minearo
Higher education is just beginning to fully understand the challenges that have been caused by the many disastrous and devastating events plaguing academia since the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California...(continue)
Reporting Red Flag Behavior to Identify and Manage Risk on College Campuses
By Heather M. Stern
His English professor, Lucinda Roy, describes his writings as disturbing and “dripping with anger”. She was so concerned that she decided to remove him from class and tutor him privately. His classmates described his work as very graphic and extremely disturbing. His roommates claimed that he was sullen and withdrawn, and often seemed to be out of touch with reality. Clearly Seung-Hui Cho exhibited troubling behavior, but it wasn’t brought to light until that tragic day in April of 2007 when he killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech and then turned the gun on himself
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Midwestern Higher Education Compact — White Paper
The Ripple Effect of Virginia Tech
Assessing the Nationwide Impact on Campus Safety and Security Policy and Practice
Introduction — In the wake of the April 16 tragedy at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) colleges and universities across the country reviewed their emergency procedures and response systems and pursued new and enhanced processes and technologies to improve communications and mobilization. (continue)
