June 2008 E-Newsletter 

Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
3401 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Claire Mills
Phone: 804.278.4265
FAX: 804.355.5648
E-mail: cmills@union-psce.edu

From the President
Campus Emergency Action Plan

 Dear Friends,

I know that many of you are concerned about our community’s progress toward the development of an emergency action plan for the seminary.  There are on-going regulatory changes taking place and our seminary team, the Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT), is keeping up with the changes as it develops a response strategy.  A draft emergency response has been developed and is presently being reviewed.  Following the last meeting of the emergency response team committee in December 2007, the following agencies were asked to review our plan: the law firm of Hunton and Williams; the City of Richmond Department of Emergency Services; the Virginia Department of Emergency Services, and the City of Richmond Fire Department. To this point, the City of Richmond Fire Marshal has recently reviewed the plan. The Assistant Fire Marshal was pleased with the plan and suggested no changes, based on existing codes.

There are several state (Virginia Senate Bill 538) and federal bills now under consideration to create a standard format or template that will be used as criteria for institutions across Virginia when it comes to emergency planning and campus notification of emergencies.  The template will be presented at the Governor's safety Conference on August 4 at VCU.  We will have representation at that conference.

In the meantime, as these standards evolve, we continue our planning.  The seminary will soon install a digital display board. The display board will not only provide information about the campus that will be particularly useful for visitors but will also act as one layer of the mass notification requirements, which will be part of the developing laws related to emergency campus planning. The seminary continues to have representation at governmental training seminars for emergency communication procedures. 

Clearly, as laws form around this issue, the situation is very fluid.  We are, however, continuing to work on our own Emergency Action Plan and hope to have a draft available for community review at some point during the Fall Semester.

Brian
Brian K. Blount
President and Professor of New Testament