Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery Chris Wuthrich (bio) Eugene L. Zdziarski II, Norbert W. Dunkel, Michael Rollo, Associates. Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. Cloth: 356 pp. $45.00. ISBN: 0-7879-7874-4. Campus Crisis Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery relies on the extensive experiences of its authors and associates to map out the essential elements of crisis management preparation. As the book's title suggests, it is a comprehensive review of protocols for responding to both large and small crises. The book's purpose is to engage higher education leaders in crisis anticipation, planning, and training. The case that Zdziarski, Dunkel and Rollo make for comprehensive crisis management planning will resonate with college and university administrators. The book's strength is its use of contemporary examples, advocacy for collaborative efforts, and detailed descriptions of the structural components of emergency response agencies. Two themes emerge early in the book. First, crisis management is proactive work, not static once a plan is established. Second, caring for individuals involved in a crisis is paramount. Whether it is students, staff, and faculty who are directly affected, or those responding to a crisis, the authors state: "Caring for the individual, providing support to those who can benefit from attention to their needs, and enhancing the human experience as educators and mentors underlie much of what we do in higher education" (p. 4). The book is divided into four parts, and Part 1 is dedicated to defining and understanding the elements of a crisis. Through the use of vignettes, which recount significant crises on university campuses over the last 40 years, the authors provide support for their assertion that lack of planning can lead to neglecting significant elements of a crisis related to information flow, becoming consumed by extraneous demands, or making assumptions about a response. The authors argue that successful crisis management planning and response begins with a common definition of what constitutes a crisis. Chapter 2 introduces a three-dimensional crisis matrix describing the level (critical incidents, emergencies, and natural disasters), type (environmental, facility, human), and intentionality of the crisis, which helps contextualize emergencies and the appropriate response. The matrix is followed by a crisis management cycle illustrating the deliberate functions involved in planning, response, and review. Part 2 is the heart of the book, describing best practices in crisis management: forming the proper administrative team; recognizing the campus response capacity; developing partnerships or enhancing relationships with city, county, state, and federal agencies; and using a planning model to guide the drafting of a comprehensive but flexible response mechanism. Two chapters [End Page 255] in this section exemplify the strengths of higher education communities and demonstrate how to use human resources in crisis planning. First, campuses should establish a central crisis management team (CMT) led by a senior administrator such as the chief academic officer or vice president for student affairs. Members of the CMT should represent the breadth and depth of institutional operations in areas such as business services, academic affairs, facility operations, student affairs, university communications, and campus safety. CMT planning ensures that proper institutional stakeholders will be represented and that the return to normalcy when the crisis subsides will be expeditious. Second, establishing effective psychological care functions are key to recovery. Rendering psychological aid to victims, campus employees, and family members who all have experienced different forms of trauma provide the coping mechanisms necessary to help people adapt. "This includes their ability to respond cognitively, affectively and behaviorally in ways that promote healing and meaning" (p. 152). The book provides several intervention models to consider, which they support with resource information. Part 3 elucidates first-hand crisis management vignettes from major environmental disasters, human-caused events, and accidents on college campuses during the last 20 years. The vignettes describe how campuses benefit from planning. Examples are reducing stakeholder stress through a speedy return to normalcy, good internal and external communication with campus constituents to provide accurate and timely information, productive working relationships with public safety agencies, and assessments to improve future response. This section...