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Communications Plan for Responding to Campus Crises

  1. Handling crisis calls: Upon receiving a call regarding an emergency or crisis situation (e.g., homicide, fire, injury, etc.) on campus, direct the call, in the following sequence, to:

    Public Safety - 859-985-3333

    Media Relations Manager (Tim Jordan)

    (Office phone: 859-985-3020; Cell phone: 859-582-0719)

    (Email:  tim_jordan@berea.edu). 

  2. Public Safety will contact the appropriate administrators and Media Relations. Following coordination with Public Safety, Media Relations will:
    1. Determine "game plan": what to do
    2. Determine audience segments for notification (e.g., students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, media, etc.)
    3. Determine key message: what to say
    4. Determine venues for notification (e.g., email, text alerts, social media, etc.) 
    5. Determine who should be the official College spokesperson if other than the Media Relations Manager (e.g., Administrative Committee (AC) member, Legal Counsel, or other. Note - use President sparingly in “routine” crisis situations.)
    6. AC members implement calling tree to notify their staff and/or faculty members as appropriate.
  3. In the event of a major crisis or emergency (e.g., homicide, fire, significant injury, etc.) assemble and imbed a Marketing and Communications (MC) communications command center at the Public Safety staging area. At the staging area, MC staff will:
    1. Establish a communications center, either in the MC office or on-site as needed
    2. Collaborate with Telephone Center and Public Safety to field calls from public and determine appropriate administrator to follow up.

      And will be organized accordingly:

      1. One person should be on the scene
      2. Another should receive and route incoming calls
      3. A third should get administrative input.

Approved by the Administrative Committee, November 25, 2015