BOSTON- October 5, 2007 - Over the past three months, approximately 60 University of Massachusetts public safety officials, administrators and staff from across all five UMass campuses have received training and certification in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as part of the University's continual emergency planning and public safety training programs.
The training, conducted by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, Inc. (IACLEA), provides a nationally recognized program that is a multi-disciplinary approach to incident management for all types of serious incidents. It presents all stages of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and trains supervisory personnel in the application of ICS and the Unified Command concept. The training covered the stages of the incident life cycle: prevention, preparedness, response (broken down into three phases), recovery, and mitigation, with exercises in a "model city" environment.
"At the campus level, we continually update our skills and planning to be as prepared as possible for public safety issues and incidents of all types. This IACLEA training offered a very thorough and practical application of National Incident Management [NIMS] preparedness and response concepts in a university environment," said Donald Robinson, Director of Environmental Health and Safety at UMass Amherst.
The most recent IACLEA training session took place October 2-4 at the University's West Street Facility in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Participants ranged from campus public safety officers, to senior communications, transportation, technology and health services officials.
Each University of Massachusetts campus has an emergency management plan based on state and national protocols. In addition, the University conducts system-wide public safety and emergency preparedness planning.
Contact:
Libby DeVecchi, 617-287-7023
Ed Blaguszewski, 413-545-0444