Emergency Operations Management

The Board of Regents has delegated to the Chancellor the responsibility for making the health, safety, and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors an integral part of UWM’s operations. Robust emergency preparedness and planning advance these goals. This policy sets forth the parameters for emergency operations management at UWM

This policy addresses creation and maintenance of an Emergency Management Program to protect UWM operations and persons who use university resources, facilities and services or who participate in UWM events in the case of an emergency.

Emergency Management Program: A program that sets forth plans and procedures for prevention of, mitigation against, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from emergencies resulting from a disaster, or the imminent threat of a disaster.

Emergency Operations Plan or EOP: A plan identifying and assigning specific areas of procedures and responsibilities in response to an emergency.

Continuity of Operations Plan or COOP: A plan for recovering and continuing essential operations.

Emergency Operations Center or EOC: A central command and control system responsible for carrying out the EOPs and COOPs. The Emergency Operations Center is a virtual, physical, or hybrid location from which leadership can coordinate information and resources to support emergency management activities.

The Chancellor has delegated to the University Police Department the authority and responsibility for oversight and implementation of the Emergency Management standards set forth in this policy, in collaboration with the support of other relevant campus stakeholders. The minimum standards are as follows.

1. UWM shall establish and maintain an Emergency Management Program as more particularly described in a University-wide EOP and COOP.
2. UWM should implement, where appropriate, the recommendations set forth in the Universities of Wisconsin Emergency Management Standard.
3. The University Police Department shall create and maintain an EOP that identifies the natural and human-caused hazards that potentially affect the university, establishes a framework for campus response, and assigns specific areas of responsibility for performing functions in response to an incident through specific functional and hazard annexes.  The EOP should be reviewed and updated by the University Police Department at least every four years.
4. The University Police Department shall oversee the compilation and completion of department level COOPs that meet UWs requirements.  COOPs should be reviewed and updated by the department at least every four years.
5. The University Police Department should coordinate the establishment of primary and alternate EOC facilities capable of coordinating and supporting sustained response and recovery operations.
6. UWM should establish communications and notification systems to support all components of the EOP and COOP plans, including emergency alerts and warnings to the campus community.
7. The University Police Department shall establish a training plan on the Emergency Management Program for key personnel.