The six-step planning process for institutions of higher education involves: 1. Forming a collaborative planning team to coordinate emergency response. 2. Understanding threats and hazards through risk assessments and crime/incident data. 3. Determining goals and objectives to prepare for different threats before, during, and after. 4. Developing courses of action through scenario planning to achieve the goals and objectives. 5. Preparing, reviewing, and approving the emergency operations plan. 6. Implementing and maintaining the plan through training, exercises, and reviews to ensure preparedness.

1. Six-Step Planning
Process for
Institutions of Higher
Education

2. STEP 1: FORM A COLLABORATIVE
PLANNING TEAM
This can be defined as a tool to align the strategic plans of each actor,
for example: there is a great event on their campus that
requires several months of coordinated and detailed planning
between many campus departments and first responders.
For many IHE, the beginning is such an event.
Generally, planning for it would involve the following:
• identification of a core planning team to plan the event;
• formation of a common framework;
• assignment of roles and responsibilities
• development of a regular schedule of meetings to
adequately plan the event.

3. STEP 2:
UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION
Once appropriate members have been considered, the IHE Guide recommends that EOP
planning team members work together to understand the situation on campus. This can be
accomplished by:
• identifying specific threats and hazards;
• assessing risks; and
• prioritizing the threats and hazards that are identified in your collaborative emergency
planning process.
A good initial action for the team is
review institutional data, which should include the campus and
Community crime statistics, risk management information on historical events and previous
insurance exposures that have
impacted the campus. Equally important, local and state and other public emergency
management,
security agencies can provide one more perspective on
threats and dangers that have impacted.
A risk mitigation plan will provide updated information
and historical threat and danger data for the local area,
Including your campus. This information can be extremely
useful for programming equipment during hazard identification
process. It also includes
site assessments, culture and climate assessments and capacity assessments.

4. STEP 3: DETERMINE GOALS AND
OBJECTIVES
After threats and hazards have been planned or listed, goals and objectives should
Be developed for every threat and danger. This method is a proven
community emergency planning approach that is crucial for
success.
As used in the planning context, the objectives are general statements
that define what staff must achieve. The IHE guide
recommends that planning teams develop at least three objectives
for each threat or danger to clarify what should happen before,
during and after each one of them.
The objectives are specific and measurable actions that help
achieve the objectives in some cases.
Once the objectives are defined for all prioritized threats and
dangers, you can observe some activities or functions that
apply to more than one threat or danger. Several of the most
common transversal emergency functions that are used in
the higher education environment includes evacuation, medical care,
shelter in place, and counting all people, a function
that implies accounting for the presence and well-being of
All students, teachers and staff.

5. STEP 4: PLAN DEVELOPMENT FOR
IDENTIFYING COURSES OF ACTION
IHEs can use scenario-based planning to visualize all the
ways in which a potential emergency could develop and then plan
consequently courses of action. Action courses are established to
Help achieve the goals and objectives that the planning team has identified. Courses
The action commonly addresses the questions of what, who, when,
where, why and how for each threat, danger and function
identified by the planning team. The courses of action should
Read as a specific set of grouping steps. In general, such steps would be
• represent the scenario;
• determine the amount of time available to respond;
• identify decision points; and
• Develop courses of action.
Once the planning team has identified all the different ways
an emergency could involve, you should find a visual way that
represent the flow, by
For example, the team can trace the process electronically using a whiteboard, or
using a "sticky note" method to provide a broader view of the
courses of action available, which could then be combined with
the objectives.

6. STEP 5: PREPARE, REVIEW, AND
APPROVE THE PLAN
It involves formatting
the plan, write the plan, approve the plan and share the
plan. Obviously, the result must be a plan that others
will want to adopt, train and use during an emergency
situation.
The IHE Guide recommends that IHE organize their EOP by three
main sections:
• A section of the Basic Plan, which provides an overview and
addresses the general activities that the IHE should
undertake, regardless of function, threat or danger;
• A section of functional annexes, which describes the objectives,
objectives and courses of action for multiple threats
and dangers; and
• A section of specific annexes of threats and dangers, which
define goals, objectives and courses of action to
Threats and specific dangers.
This format is similar to the existing IHE
At each IHE campus, the process used to obtain
administrative approvals once the plan is complete probably
to vary. However, the process used to share the plan must be
Similary. A complete EOP must be distributed to the campus
or building managers, community partners, mental and
public health officials and other interested parties who may have
a role or responsibility in the plan.

7. STEP 6: IMPLEMENT AND
MAINTAIN THE PLAN
For the final step, the guide recommends that teams focus on training interested parties,
exercise the plan, review the plan and
Keep the plan. You should never implement a new
EOP without first becoming familiar with its content.
Everyone who has a role or responsibility in the plan should
Become familiar with the actions you should take before, during,
and after an emergency. Several training components are
available for this purpose, including the following:
• hold an annual meeting to educate all parties about the
plan;
• Visit evacuation sites (fire assembly areas, staging
areas, etc.) with appropriate stakeholders; and
• publish key information (using posters, podium cards,
flipcharts, etc.) on campus buildings about how
Respond to several emergencies.
Exercising the plan is a very important step, as it guarantees that people who have a role
or the responsibility receives the opportunity to practice their part, but they must also
consider and involve students who live in
Off-campus housing in the planning process, an ideal form of planning team can address
the exercise process strategically.