The University continued to expand its emergency preparedness plans over spring break by purchasing supplies, testing the alert system and holding a meeting with Resident Assistants to explain the Floor Marshal plan, a program developed to coordinate safety procedures on campus.
Safety precautions were raised on Monday with the re-establishment of Code Orange by the Department of Homeland Security. The University sent a broadcast e-mail Monday night informing the campus of further restrictions of campus entrances under Code Orange.
In a broadcast e-mail sent earlier on Monday, the University said that it has also purchased ID card holders and neck chains for the entire campus.
“These will allow students, faculty and staff to display Georgetown ID cards more readily, which may be necessary in an emergency,” the e-mail read.
The e-mail also informed campus of purchases of other emergency supplies, further training of emergency personnel and planned evacuation drills. It also contained advice for individual precautions such as learning evacuation routes and being alert to suspicious behavior.
Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas and Director of Housing Bob Robinson met with resident assistants and hall directors Wednesday to discuss the Floor Marshal program. According to a draft of the Floor Marshal Handbook, each building on-campus has one “Building Marshal” to coordinate safety procedures and information. Each floor within a building has several “Floor Marshals.” RAs will serve as Floor Marshals in Residence Halls.
New South RA Joe McCoy (CAS ‘04) said that the Floor Marshal plan does not mean radical change for RAs.
“Already we take charge of situations that are emergencies and we would anyway. That’s just our job,” McCoy said.
McCoy said that the plan is more of a change for academic buildings, because residence halls have RAs who already perform many of the duties required of Floor Marshals.
RAs learned at the meeting that they will receive enough food and water to last their floor’s residents three days, if an emergency arises that results in students sheltering inside the residence halls. Other equipment given to Floor Marshals will include a yellow hat, a luminescent vest, a radio and pack containing more supplies. These packs will include food bars, water pouches, emergency blankets, light sticks, dust masks and vinyl gloves, according to the draft handbook.
Floor marshal duties include maintaining a bulletin board with safety information, distributing evacuation and “shelter-in” plans as well as keeping the emergency radio on while in the building, the handbook read.
Guidelines for Code Orange are provided in the handbook. These include preparing a “go-bag” filled with items necessary for spending several nights away from campus and being alert to suspicious activity.
Village C East RA Hormazd Kanga (MSB ‘04) said that it is difficult to formulate plans for so many different kinds of emergencies, from nuclear bombs to biological weapons. But Kanga said that he thinks having an emergency plan is beneficial.
“I think it’s probably good. I think everybody recognized that in an emergency-there’s so many different kinds-it’s hard to have a plan that fits everything,” Kanga said. “I think it does reassure a few people that we have a basic plan.”
The meeting on Wednesday was the first held for RAs to discuss the Floor Marshal plan, Kanga said, but RAs already have training for emergency situations.
