About Emergency Management

1. The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is dedicated to helping the University and the State of Minnesota prepare for, respond to, recover from, and reduce the effects of potential intentional, accidental or natural disasters. Its mission is accomplished through preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation while fostering partnerships with outside agencies in the areas of emergency response, management, and training.

2. The Department of Emergency Management will be regarded as a leader in the community; having a world-class program supporting the university’s mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

3. The primary role of the Department of Emergency Management is to develop plans and resources to enable the University of Minnesota’s four campuses to cope with disasters.

4. The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is a division of Public Safety, which in addition oversees the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) and the Department of Central Security (DCS).

Developing plans and resources to cope with disasters is a four-step process that begins with preparedness. In this step DEM assesses the hazards that face the community. For example, while damage resulting from an earthquake would be devastating, major earthquakes are not very likely to occur in Minnesota so time and resources are not spent on developing such plans. However, Minnesota routinely faces tornados, severe winter and summer storms, along with the ever-present risks of hazardous materials and civil unrest.

In addition, because this is a major land-grant University, crowding problems are common. On a typical day, 10 to 20 thousand people fill the streets and sidewalks of the U of M each hour. There are also thousands of fans coming to campus by car and mass transit on any given day to attend men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic events.

The second aspect of emergency management is response. DEM is actively engaged in the various activities that result from the occurrence of a disaster. In this situation, the emergency manager works to coordinate the efforts of various agencies such as police, fire or EMS. Assuming the responsibility of coordination ensures that efforts are not duplicated or wasted. Similar to utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS) model, an emergency management staff person often fills the incident commander role within a unified command structure.

Another aspect of the response phase is the establishment of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC differs from a command post because it is away from the center of activity. The EOC provides a place senior administrators to make strategic decisions face-to-face without distractions.

At the University, the EOC is protected from severe weather and has a generator in the event of power failure. In addition to office phones used during the business day, there are three Centrex lines, which continue to work if the University's central telephone system fails. There are also ten special University lines in which phones are attached only during times of emergency. We have multiple data jacks, fax and copy services, secure entrances and access to emergency medical personnel 24 hours a day.

Recovery is the third phase of emergency management. As the name implies, this is the stage in which systems come back on-line. Again, coordination is the key to a successful recovery phase, as is good resource allocation.

Mitigation activities are the final role in emergency management and involves attempts to identify (a) what went wrong and how can it be prevented from occurring again, and; (b) other potential problems that can be addressed before they develop into a problem.

5. The DEM tasks are cyclical, not linear. After responding, immediate recovery planning begins. During this time, analysis on what caused the disaster and steps to mitigate problems takes place. For problems that cannot be easily fixed, adjustments are made for better response in the future.

Plans are living documents that must be continually updated as situations/threats/resources change.

6. Internally, DEM operates the University's Ambulance Service, which offers a number of highly trained volunteers to assist in the event of an emergency.

DEM works in close connection with the University of Minnesota Police Department, the Department of Central Security, the State of Minnesota’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to provide training as well as emergency medical equipment