2008 Woodie Awards
College mandates pandemic planning
Lea Calderon-Guthe
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News
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The Emergency Planning Steering Committee sent a student-wide e-mail on Oct. 12 informing that all students must enter personal evacuation plans on BannerWeb prior to registration for spring courses, in an effort by the College to improve its pandemic readiness. The e-mail was a follow-up of an notice from the Health Center in March of 2007 announcing the College's plan to completely shut down in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak.
"In comparing our plan, which involves complete campus evacuation, to other schools' that are trying to have partial campus evacuations, I think our model has the best opportunity to provide the most health and safety to the students," said Dr. Mark Peluso, director of the Parton Health Center and head of the Pandemic Planning Committee.
Middlebury College was among to first to establish a plan for a complete evacuation over a year ago. Peluso said the logic behind a complete evacuation is simple, arguing that a partial evacuation makes little sense.
"The models that we're being presented with for pandemic flu suggest that we can't guarantee that we will have staff or resources such as heat, electricity or food delivered to the campus," said Peluso. "Then we'd have students that we would feel responsible for, but we would not have the staff or supplies to provide for them."
In order to access registration for the Spring 2008 term, students must first provide a personal evacuation plan on BannerWeb which identifies two locations to which they would travel should the campus unexpectedly close. Students would be able to log onto BannerWeb at any time in the future to view or update their plans.
BannerWeb will also be utilized as a database to store phone numbers of students who confirm their evacuation plans. The College would then utilize this database in if it needs to notify students of an emergency.
The horrors of a pandemic flu appear imminent, but the evidence that scientists are currently working with to predict a pandemic flu outbreak is solely historical: records show that the world can expect a severe pandemic every 80 to 100 years, with the last one being the Spanish Influenza of 1918.
"In comparing our plan, which involves complete campus evacuation, to other schools' that are trying to have partial campus evacuations, I think our model has the best opportunity to provide the most health and safety to the students," said Dr. Mark Peluso, director of the Parton Health Center and head of the Pandemic Planning Committee.
Middlebury College was among to first to establish a plan for a complete evacuation over a year ago. Peluso said the logic behind a complete evacuation is simple, arguing that a partial evacuation makes little sense.
"The models that we're being presented with for pandemic flu suggest that we can't guarantee that we will have staff or resources such as heat, electricity or food delivered to the campus," said Peluso. "Then we'd have students that we would feel responsible for, but we would not have the staff or supplies to provide for them."
In order to access registration for the Spring 2008 term, students must first provide a personal evacuation plan on BannerWeb which identifies two locations to which they would travel should the campus unexpectedly close. Students would be able to log onto BannerWeb at any time in the future to view or update their plans.
BannerWeb will also be utilized as a database to store phone numbers of students who confirm their evacuation plans. The College would then utilize this database in if it needs to notify students of an emergency.
The horrors of a pandemic flu appear imminent, but the evidence that scientists are currently working with to predict a pandemic flu outbreak is solely historical: records show that the world can expect a severe pandemic every 80 to 100 years, with the last one being the Spanish Influenza of 1918.
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