Responding to the Tragedy at Virginia Tech

The April 16 tragedy at Virginia Tech raised questions for many MSU facuty and staff regarding

1. guidelines and procedures around identifying and assisting distressed students and students in crisis;

2. campus policies and procedures around emergency management;

3. strategies for guiding discussions for students who want to use their classes as a place to sort out difficult questions about current events.

To help you address the challenges that may arise in these situations, and to guide you in thinking about whether and/or how to discuss emerging events, we’ve gathered a list of Internet resources organized into two broad categories:

• Identifying and responding to students in crisis

• Talking with your students about current events and crises

Added February 2008
Campus Emergency Response, Communication, and Classroom Safety slideshow that focuses on:

• Top Ten List of What to Do in the Event of... exercise
• General Overview of Emergency Management
• Classroom Safety Concerns and Communication
  • Lessons Learned from Virginia Tech on how to handle an “active shooter”
  • What might we do
    Alert and Notification
    • ETXT, Reverse911, media release, pagers, MSUAlert, E-mail, web-site, Siren systems
    • Exercise: Technology Demonstration
• In an emergency, what do we ask from you…
• Emergency Action Teams
  • Coordinators, Leaders and You
    • Knowledge of how to evacuate or “shelter-in-place”
  • Individual level preparedness
    • Ability to obtain and disseminate timely messages
    • Oversight within the research area, classroom or your office spaces of others
  • Exercise: Preparedness
    

Campus Emergency Response, Communication, and Classroom Safety slideshow

If you have specific questions or concerns about these materials, or if you have additional resources or links you would like us to consider, please contact Dakin Burdick at facdevel@msu.edu or at 432-2033.