Thirteen Higher Education Institutions Receive Grants To Plan, Prepare for Campus Emergencies
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced the award of $5.2 million for 13 new grants to colleges and universities to develop and implement emergency management plans for preventing and responding to campus violence and natural disasters in order to ensure the safety of the entire campus community.
"Keeping students safe starts with planning ahead," Spellings said. "These new grants will help college administrators coordinate with law enforcement, health officials, and state and local governments to prevent violence and prepare institutions to respond quickly and efficiently if emergencies occur."
Funded for the first time in 2008, Emergency Management for Higher Education (EMHE) grants fund activities within the four phases of emergency management -- prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery -- to prepare for the whole range of threats that can impact a campus, including, but not limited to: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, campus violence, suicides and infectious disease outbreaks. The grants are for 18 months.
Funding for the EMHE grants is made available through the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
A list of grantees follows:
Pulaski Technical College
North Little Rock, Ark.
Daytona Beach Community College
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Emory University
Atlanta
Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, Ill.
Indiana University
Indianapolis
Middlesex Community College
Lowell, Mass. New Jersey
Salem Community College
Carneys Point, N.J.
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Albuquerque
CUNY Research Foundation/BMCC
New York
Nassau Community College
Garden City, N.Y.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, N.Y.
Oakland University
Rochester, Mich.
The University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, Miss.