SACRAO 2013

Will Your Office be Able to Function???

Disaster Preparedness

Janet L Davis

Physical Plant – grounds/buildings Student Affairs Academic Affairs Communications/Computing Campus Police Human Resources/Payroll

SACRAO 2013

Campus Disaster Plans

SACRAO 2013

UNO Hurricane Plan

Set up on “Number of Days Out”

Hurricane Preparedness Committee meets &sends information emails/text messages to the campus community.

Pick up trash bins, benches, bike racks, etc.

Plan evacuation of housing residents and international students.

SACRAO 2013

UNO Hurricane Plan

Lock out data base users.

Prepare buildings for power shutdown.

Emergency web site final testing.

SACRAO 2013

UNO Hurricane Plan

Programming staff save their own files and SQRs.

Backup copies of all web pages.

Mirror Servers at 2 locations.

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Office Plan (old)

Cover sensitive equipment.

Move things off the floor.

Empty bottom drawers of file cabinets in the vault.

Update the staff emergency contact list.

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Office Plan (now)

Registrar has a mobile file that is packed with items such as the seal, letterhead, etc.

Critical supplies are stored off-site.

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Office Plan (now)

Each staff member has a list of what they are to take away from the office.

The staff emergency contact list now includes a number outside the area that we call to report our location.

Two designated “captains” make sure their part of the office is buttoned down.

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“Normal” Conditions

Another day or so to get office back up & running

No long-term interruption of other services (mail)

Staff returns home

Power would be out just a few days

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The Reality

No Power (electrical/natural gas) over affected area.

No drinking/running water.

Gasoline shortages.

No communication – cell and land lines down, but even if working, cell phone charging becomes an issue (see item 1 above) .

How to locate staff◦ How to put them to work

Web Check-In pages for faculty/staffLocating Students via Web Check-inRescuing equipment from campusAccess to your data base

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Rebooting the Campus

Decide what services can be offered◦ considering displaced staff◦ who will do what◦ technology available to displaced staff◦ what equipment/supplies can be had

Don’t overestimate what you can doLeave off any luxury services

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Rebooting … cont’d

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Plan NOW

What technologies are available now that you can begin to use BEFORE the disaster strikes so you can run your office away from your office?

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Groups to Serve

Future students – recruitment & application

Current students

Alumni/Former Students

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Future Students

Everyone probably has a way to collect prospective student data electronically

If you don’t, start

Receive ACT/SAT/GMAT/GRE/TOEFL scores electronically for loading into your SIS

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Online admissions application

On your own web site

Via one or more third-parties

Electronic communication with applicants (email, online chats, Twitter feeds, etc)

Future Students

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Current Students

• News, general information, how-to’s

Provide LOTS of basic information to your students via your web site.

• Registrar Facebook page and/or a Twitter account

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Students/Alumni

Transcripts

Degree/enrollment verifications

Diploma reprints

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Students/Alumni

Sign up with the National Student Clearinghouse (www.studentclearinghouse.org)or Credentials Solutions (www.credentials-inc.com)

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Students/Alumni

Verifications of enrollment

Clearinghouse/Credentials Solutions

Verifications of degree

You provide the data to them and they report it for you (for free).

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Students/Alumni

Transcript Ordering (small fee paid by requestor).

They collect the information, the release form if needed, and any fee you charge.

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Students/Alumni

Send Transcripts electronically

eScripSafe (www.scrip-safe.com)

This service provides a method to send/receive official transcripts if you have no postal service.

Make sure your plan works within your computing services’ disaster plan.

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Test Your Plan

Make sure that you can get to your data.

Any special connectivity needed?? VPN maybe???

Make sure your student portal/web access will function post-event.

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Test Your Plan

If you have implemented transcript ordering or verifications from within your student web access, test to be sure it still works.

If possible, send a portion of your staff home to work remotely and evaluate that.

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Test Your Plan

You want to make sure that they can do what needs to be done if they are not physically on your campus.

Ideally, you would set a date and stage a mock disaster, then implement your plans with people logging in remotely. See how the emergency setup performs. Evaluate the results and tweak the plan as needed.

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Test Your Plan

If you are away from your campus after the disaster, make sure you know where the “power brokers” from your campus are meeting and making decisions. Be there if you can.

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Suggestions….

Be a ghoul….

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Suggestions….

Watch the disasters that happen and learn what worked and what did not and adjust your plan accordingly.

SACRAO 2013

Questions?????

R U (red)E ?

Janet L Davis

jldavis2@uno.edu