St. John's News
St. John's Holds Emergency Preparedness Training with U.S. Department of State
August 04, 2008
With an increased number of our students participating in the
Global Studies program, St. John’s initiated a training event with
the U.S. Department of State’s Overseas Advisory Council
(OSAC). OSAC is a Federal Advisory Committee with a U.S.
Government Charter to promote security cooperation between American
business and private sector interests worldwide and the U.S.
Department of State.
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On Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at the University’s Manhattan campus,
representatives from Public Safety, Global Studies, Student Life,
Office of the Provost, Campus Ministry and Marketing and
Communications participated in a two-hour Table Top Exercise with
OSAC and International SOS (ISOS). ISOS is a private company that
offers assistance to the University concerning our emergency
response to an incident overseas where we have students
studying.
Gerard A. McEnerney, Assistant Vice President and Executive
Director of the Staten Island Campus and Emergency Management for
the University designed and coordinated the training exercise. The
goals of the exercise were to:
- Exercise procedures currently in place to address a disaster
overseas in a location where St. John’s has students
- Engage critical partners, establish relationships with each
other so that during a time of emergency we would have established
personal contacts and familiarization with specific departmental
protocols
- Improve procedures based on lessons learned (after action
report)
McEnerney said, "The exercise met all of our goals and enabled
us, by working through an exercise scenario, to identify how we can
improve our Emergency Management procedures and interface in a more
productive way with our critical partners, such as the Department
of State and ISOS in the event an emergency situation occurred
abroad. St. John’s is committed to constantly improving its
Emergency Preparedness program. The exercise presented a unique
opportunity to work with government representatives and to better
ensure the safety of our students studying in University sponsored
programs in other countries.”
On the following day, July 30, 2008, OSAC conducted an all-day
training session on the Manhattan campus that addressed crisis
management issues.