Notable Moments – Emergency Preparedness & Strategic Initiatives

Emergency Management and Mission Continuity

Emergency Management hosted the FBI and Y-12 Nuclear Security partners for a large-scale table top exercise called 1887 Silent Thunder, focusing on the increased security controls necessary to work with but protect radioactive materials of concerns.  Nearly 100 local, state and federal first responders, regulatory administrators, public health representatives, and public information officers participated in the facilitated situation that allowed first responders to practice together.  This exercise is the part one of two hosted events with these agencies, with part two hosted in 2023. 

CSHEMA Award – Year of Pivots – Preparedness in Uncertain Times;  Campus, Safety, Health, Environmental Management Association: Marketing Campaign Award

Honored by the Campus, Safety, Health, Environmental Management Association, this campaign targeted an academic year (between August and May) embroiled by COVID-19 impacts, shining a spotlight on the basics of emergency preparedness – despite the pandemic. With COVID-19, the pandemic solidified making an emergency event very real, very impactful and very personal to everyone. Pairing real events associated with the pandemic to campus preparedness topics, this campaign was eye-catching and quippy. Using catchy imagery and levity, each poster provided a nugget of information, with visually appealing high impact colors. This has made a HUGE difference in refreshing some of the emergency preparedness basics

EMMC developed and implemented the risk assessment process that supports use of campus space, per revision of REG 11.55.02 Use of University Space.  As campus events grow more diverse and frequent, appropriate planning, review and space reservations are needed to ensure resource availability, coordination and safety, which includes university affiliate and non-affiliate events and applies to all university properties. As referenced in Section 2.10 of the regulation, major events require a risk review before planning which is facilitated by Emergency Management and Mission Continuity, once events are registered in the event portal.

Major events may require coordination with various campus operations partners including Emergency Management and Mission Continuity, Campus Enterprises (including Student Centers), Facilities, University Real Estate and Development, Registration and Records, Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA), Insurance and Risk Management and University Police. 

EMMC continues to grow collaborations with university partners, in support of large scale events with wide impacts, though support via virtual or physical emergency operations center management.  Campus partner events supported in 2022 include:
• Dreamville
• July 4th Fireworks on Dorotha Dix campus
• Live at Lake Raleigh
• Fall Semester Move In
• Packapooloza
• Planning committees for upcoming events: NHL Stadium Series, Special Olympics North Carolina Games, Spring Commencement

Following COVID operations for three years, Emergency Management revisioned Pack Planning and focused on campus wide communication plan updates, in light of mass staff changes and organizational resets in departments and colleges. Impacting over 150 individual plans, EMMC staff engaged campus partners in mass data collation and training, to meet the requirements of the university continuity PRR. 

Team members Amy Orders and Todd Becker were invited to present at two national association conferences, CSHEMA and IAEM respectively. These programs highlighted campaigns and programs built for NC State specifically, but scalable to other institutions of higher education.  Additionally, both presented at the UNC System Emergency Management Safety and Security Conference on bomb threats and family reunification planning.

In partnership with other EHPS departments, EMMC operationalized a streamlined emergency response program, including cross training of personnel, revision of communication processes and automation of incident report distribution.  This singular intake process increased efficacy across response programs, highlighted personnel growth opportunities and offered a new level of information sharing for quicker after action support needs.

EMMC applied for and received over $4.6 Million dollars in FEMA COVID relief funds.  This application process offset costs for testing and supplies.  Additionally, college level FEMA COVID recovery submissions were awarded in the College of Education, Campus Health and Enrollment Management.

Emergency Management and Mission Continuity is partnering with the Office of Information Technology on modeling business impact analysis.  A review by Deloitte and Touche helped develop a campus IT Risk Management roadmap, elements of which can be incorporated in unit Pack Ready Emergency Plans and used to strengthen mission continuity. As the roadmap is finalized, academic, research and mission continuity will be integrated into a series of campus exercises relating to IT business processes.  Two pilot groups were started in 2022 – Graduate School and University Human Resources.

Partnering with University Police, EMMC team members hosted quarterly meetings with Student Government officials, to review existing programs and brainstorm student partnership opportunities.  The SG security working group hosted a campus security night walk in October, culminating in a list of after-dark security concerns that can be discussed and mitigated.

Partnering with University Communications, team members revised the university emergency information webpage, to allow for direct posting of WolfAlert emergency communication information.  This change eliminated the delay in posting of impactful emergency information updates.  

CSHEMA Innovation Award for Football Game Day Operations Dashboard – Game day operations for football require management of over 50,000 people in one location for 10+ hours. NC State’s Emergency Preparedness and Strategic Initiatives was tasked to respond to inevitable operational impacts on campus events during COVID 19 in 2021. Formulating plans to coordinate services centrally, manage safety and security operations in a shared approach both virtually and in-person was the goal. Operationalizing existing emergency preparedness and venue plans was the first step. The second step was centralizing all components of safety, security and athletics game day operations into one platform, for ease of information collection and ready access for responders.

Fire and Life Safety 

The NC Office of the State Fire Marshal, in partnership with Fire and Life Safety and Facilities, inspected nearly 80% of NC State’s Raleigh campuses, for compliance with fire code and life safety programming. This comprehensive inspection, last performed in 2019, included campus partners, who were a huge help addressing items that inspectors identify, including propping open doors with chocks or door stops, blocking exits with excess items and storage supplies within 18″ of sprinkler heads.  When inspectors finish all of the Raleigh campus, Fire and Life Safety will share the lessons learned with campus partners for future programs and training.  

FLS implemented a revised campus wide building inspection program, tiering buildings for fire and life code inspections:

  • Partnership with University Housing staff, who completed over 6,949 inspections in fall 2022, FLS re-inspected areas of non compliance and offered assistance in fixing open issues
  • FLS staff, both full and part time, completed 148 individual building inspections in 2022, bringing the building inspection program to currency post COVID

Following the NFL football player’s cardiac arrest, there was increased interest in AED training and available campus devices.  Fire and Life Safety assisted campus departments with purchase and maintenance of existing AEDs.  Training class requests increased 75% over past years and remain the best way to get experience and be prepared before support is actually needed.

Fire and Life Safety, in partnership with Environmental Health and Safety, rolled out revised areas of rescue training and evacuation planning. A collaborative video and community outreach was deployed in early 2022, with revision to building postings continuing throughout the year.

Fire extinguisher maintenance, testing and compliance programming was re-envisioned and a new contractor hired to support campus needs. With over 5,000 extinguishers, nearly 70% were replaced, with the remainder subjected to annual testing requirements and required testing.  Staffing shortages during COVID impacted campus programming, creating a non-compliance issue. 

Fire services grew tremendously in 2022-2023. Extensive temporary staff were used to support over 400 campus events, both planned and unplanned while part and full time staff completed:

  • Fire watches compeleted – 67
  • Fire alarm responses – 578
  • Fire alarm test (partnership with Facilities) – 14
  • Emergency response calls – 569
  • Plan reviews and fac mod reviews – 590
  • Emergency evacuation drills – 272
  • Training classes – 56, with over 519 participants
  • Consultations – 131
  • Major event reviews – 69

Team member William Stanfield successfully completed his fire investigation certification.

Insurance and Risk Management

Insurance and Risk Management implemented new enterprise software, to manage the university insurance auto and property policies.  The software, Origami, will allow business units to self-manage policy related information and updates, as well as review annual billing information. Subsequent components will be added to Origami, with partnership the Office of General Council for Tort Liability incident and claim tracking/handling and Environmental Health and Safety regarding workers compensation in 2023. 

IRM created an Origami Growth Plan to include all asset list in Origami, streamline business processes, reduce spreadsheets, collect claim data, and create an opportunity to generate reports:

  • Continue to find new innovative methods to incorporate Origami into IRM business processes to streamline workflows and collect data
    • Camper Accident Policy
    • Assets – MLCBE, Master Mobile, Boats, Drones
    • Incident and Claims tracking
  • Negotiated and collaborated with Origami and within EPSI to reduce the cost of Origami Growth Plan from $91,400 to $17,500
    • Lead an inter-departmental project to understand OGC business processes, map work flows, and build Origami to fit the business needs of OGC, IRM, and EPSI
    • Create data sharing opportunities for holistic claim payment metrics

Insurance Policy updates:

  • Teammembers identified a gap in the Master Student Blanket Professional Liability policy and created a solution to insure CVM interns
  • Located a typo in the Continued Salary Policy for EHS Professionals and worked with the insurance company to resolve.
  • Reduced the Property insurance deductible from $100,000 to $5,000 through conversations with CVM financial analysts.

This team instituted a new IRM outreach program – “Hot Topics” to connect with campus stakeholders and share proactive risk management initiatives and best practices

IRM team members participated in HIPAA audit for covered entities, to begin conversations for the need to revise PRR and conducted a BAA audit with Purchasing and OGC.

Initiated the building reconciliation project to reconcile building names and unique identifiers across NCSU internal system (FMI) and NCDOI’s system, partnerships with Facilities and EPSI Strategic Initiatives team members.

Team member Drew Nicholson completed his HIPAA Privacy Security Expert Course.

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiatives team members partnered with Facilities GIS staff to map all campus AEDs for quick reference and use in the event of medical emergencies.

Partnering with Facilities GIS staff, SI worked with 4 summer student interns, to locate, geo-tag and register over 5,519 fire extinguishers. This information was used to locate assets for inspection, testing and replacement, as well as provide basic wayfinding information for new contract employees. 

Support EHS expansion of safety plan programming, team members developed assessment tools and databases to support campus lab information and operations.  This program will roll out in 2023, effectively becoming the sole source of information for laboratory and shop inspections, as well as the information repository for emergency response information.  

In support of campus major event risk assessments, SI team members developed a way to catalog incoming event information from a Gravity form in WordPress, mapping review needs in Trello and assigning reviews to campus partner review groups, including operations teams:

  • University Dining
  • Transportation
  • Insurance and Risk Management
  • Fire and Life Safety
  • Emergency Management
  • Facilities Grounds
  • University Police
  • DASA – Student Organizations
  • Youth programming and minors review
  • EHPS – Alcohol permission

    Additional mapping then included campus responsible authorities for location specific reviews, including:

  • Registration and Records
  • Centennial Campus
  • Athletics and Special Events
  • Univeristy Housing, Fraternity and Soroity Life
  • Libraries
  • Wellness and Recreation
  • Lonnie Poole Golf Course
  • CVM

Supporting UNC System leave programming associated with COVID vaccinations, Strategic Initiatives tracked over 7,000 faculty, staff and student employee records, to award 8 hours of paid vacation time if employees met the vaccination requirements. This effect extended in 2023.

Team members designed use cases and adapted business operations to flow into ServiceNow, for assignment, completion tracking and cost management of IT support needs and programming.  With the assistance of a contractor, phase one of the implementation is complete and SI team members will expand the functionality in 2023, to include business processes/operations associated with the division.

CSHEMA Award – Football Game Day Operations – Process Improvement Innovation Award:

North Carolina State’s Emergency Preparedness and Strategic Initiatives was tasked to respond to inevitable operational impacts on campus events during COVID 19 in 2021. Formulating plans to coordinate services centrally, manage safety and security operations in a shared approach both virtually and in-person was the goal. Operationalizing existing emergency preparedness and venue plans was the first step. The second step was centralizing all components of safety, security and athletics game day operations into one platform, for ease of information collection and ready access for responders.

Team members participated in several campus partner working groups, committees or special projects in 2022:

  • University Human Resources Remote Work programming
  • OIT ISAG
  • OIT EAC IT Governance
  • REPORTER Steering Committee and Required Training data steward
  • SACS – COC Steering Committee
  • University Core Communications Committee
  • Mental Health and Campus Health Working Group

Team member Chris Carraway successfully completed his ServiceNow credential.

Across the department, 8 student employees were employed for campus programming – some of which are award winning programs, as well as 4 PEP program awardees:

  • Four summer interns – Strategic Initiatives Team
  • One intern, Fall 2022 – Fire and Life Safety
  • Two interns each Spring and Fall 2022 – Emergency Management and Mission Continuity
  • One intern, Fall 2022 – Insurance and Risk Management
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