Mount St. Mary’s enhances campus emergency plan

Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, announced they are first in the nation to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop a plan for responding to a campus crisis, announced president Thomas H. Powell.
A dry run of a tabletop exercise simulated incidents and successful strategies for response, with technology playing a major role in the university’s crisis management plan.
Mount St. Mary’s is the first Maryland campus to install the Connect-ED® message alert system to automatically notify students, faculty and staff of a campus emergency. A signal can be sent from university officials simultaneously via phone, text and/or email in the event of inclement weather, major traffic incidents or security concerns.
The university kicked off its year-long national bicentennial celebration Aug. 22, which prompted Mr. Powell to finalize testing and placement of an emergency management plan. Thousands of VIP guests, students and visitors will be on campus during the year.
“Today we prepare for the unexpected,” he said.