Students create, present emergency preparedness plan for Win Thompson Hall

Assistant Professor of Communication J.J. McIntyre’s Crisis Communication class presented its crisis communication plan for Win Thompson Hall on April 17 in the Board of Trustees meeting room.
McIntyre opened the program by telling the crowd made up of faculty, staff and students of the university, a story about the commencement ceremony this past December. McIntyre said the people in attendance had no idea what to do when the fire alarm started sounding during the ceremony and looked to the stage for instruction about what to do next.
“We are here today to start a campus-wide discussion about safety,” McIntyre said. “This project is not intended to instill fear, instead, we hope to develop a mindful university that is able to react and is not paralyzed by fear.”
Junior Marcela Montelongo opened the student presentations. She explained the situations that could potentially put UCA at risk such as an active shooter or natural disaster.
“Though all crises are different, it is important to already be thinking about what we as a campus can do about them,” Montelongo said. “We understand how important it is to share responsibility and how we handle crises of any kind at UCA.”
Junior Jesse Chambliss explained the opportunities that can arise from a crisis. He said a crisis presents an opportunity for change.
“While it may be tragic in nature, it’s a time for renewal and restoration for an organization,” Chambliss said. “An organization must establish a new normal for itself and reach a turning point.”
Chambliss explained the different stages of a crisis.
“These three stages are in a loop. This means that any organization will be in this loop at all times,” Chambliss said. “No organization will be outside of the post crisis, pre-crisis or crisis stages.”
Chambliss said organizations tend to focus on the negative in a crisis rather than realizing the opportunity to change after the crisis.
“This is the purpose of meeting here today: to learn from our mistakes and realize our opportunity for change,” Chambliss said. “We hope to move UCA forward with campus-wide conversations about safety. From there, we want to maintain the conversation by implementing organizational structure for longevity.”
Sophomore Bethany Miller said it is important to consider UCA students and faculty a resource in an emergency rather than a liability.
“In our communication class, we have learned about a state of mind that is a cosmology episode,” Miller said. “A cosmology episode occurs when people suddenly and deeply feel that the universe is no longer a rational, orderly system.”
Miller explained that when a crisis strikes, people tend to be unprepared and lose their sense of decision-making and there is more of a chance for an enhancement of the problem rather than decreasing it.
Miller said UCA professors are not required to receive any type of crisis or emergency training at this time.
“Most crisis plans are standardized as ‘one size fits all.’ This is inappropriate to expect every building on a campus to have the same risk factors,” Miller said.
Miller compared Win Thompson Hall to Lewis Science Center, saying the layout and building features are things to consider when developing an emergency preparedness plan.
The students in this class performed an “evaluation night” in early March to show the emergency preparedness of Win Thompson Hall.