Emergency Communications at Ohio University

During any emergency, OHIO’s initial emphasis will always focus on disseminating accurate and clear communications to protect the health and safety of our communities.

OHIO’s Emergency Communications Plan serves as a complement to the University’s Emergency Operations Plan, which guides OHIO’s operational response during an emergency event.

The Emergency Communications Plan focuses on outlining the general roles, responsibilities and protocols that will guide the University’s communications and information distribution efforts throughout a situation that poses an emerging or imminent threat to the University community in Athens and/or to its regional campuses, extension campuses or centers.

Communicating during an emergency: Guiding Principles

An emergency is defined as an incident (a developing/emerging threat) or critical incident (an imminent threat) that:

  • Could negatively affect, or has negatively affected, the health, safety or welfare of OHIO’s students, faculty, staff and/or campus guests/visitors.
  • Severely impedes or limits core functions of the University.
  • Risks disrupting normal campus operations.
  • Could, or has, negatively affected public confidence in the institution.

In the event of an incident that has been identified as a developing or emerging threat to the Athens Campus:

  • UCM will serve as the primary lead for emergency communications.
    • An emergency notification may be issued to a selected group or location within the University community or to the entire University community depending on the nature of the situation.
  • Depending on the nature of the situation, OHIO’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), and/or an identified sub-group, may assemble and as a resource for a coordinated response.

In the event of a critical incident that poses an imminent threat to safety on the Athens Campus:

  • The Ohio University Police Department (OUPD) is responsible for issuing an initial campus notification.
  • Following the initial campus notification by OUPD during an imminent threat on the Athens Campus:
    • UCM will serve as the primary lead for emergency communications.
    • OUPD will continue to lead Incident Command.
    • Emergency Management and Safety will provide planning and support.
    • OHIO’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) serves as a resource for Incident Command and assists in a coordinated response.

In the event of an identified critical incident that spans beyond the Athens Campus at Ohio University:

  •  UCM will work with its communications counterparts within the appropriate community partner/agency to determine an emergency or critical incident within the City or County of Athens that may pose an immediate threat to the University community and/or its surrounding areas.
  • Both CIRT and the appropriate community agencies will work together to determine communications lead based on the situation at hand.

In the event of an identified imminent or emerging threat at one of Ohio University’s regional campuses:

  •  During an imminent threat, each of OHIO’s regional campuses employs a communicator who will work with the identified emergency lead on its campus to deliver urgent communications.
  • During an emerging threat, regional campus communicators will work alongside University Communications and Marketing to identify appropriate communication approaches based on the nature of the situation.
  • Furthermore, each of OHIO’s regional campus locations maintains a close, cooperative relationship with all local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Emergency Communications: Procedures (Assess, Operations, Communication)

1. Assessing the situation

An emergency is defined as an incident (a developing/emerging threat) or critical incident (an imminent threat) that:

  • Could negatively affect, or has negatively affected, the health, safety or welfare of OHIO’s students, faculty, staff and/or campus guests/visitors.
  • Severely impedes or limits core functions of the University.
  • Risks disrupting normal campus operations.
  • Could, or has, negatively affected public confidence in the institution.

It is important to note that the Ohio University Police Department (OUPD) is responsible for issuing timely, initial campus notifications during any emergency situation that poses an imminent threat to safety on the Athens Campus.

Ohio University issues a timely warning whenever: (1) a crime specified under the Jeanne Clery Act (Clery Act) is reported to the Ohio University Police Department (OUPD), a Campus Security Authority (CSA), or OHIO is informed by a law enforcement partner; (2) there is a serious or ongoing threat to students and employees because of the crime and (3) the crime occurred at a reportable location defined by the Clery Act.

OHIO may also send additional safety notifications not required by the Clery Act to increase safety and awareness across the Ohio University community.

2. Operationalizing University response

As described in Ohio University Policy 44.100: Critical Incidents, the University has constructed a Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) whose mission is to provide leadership to the campus community before, during and after an emergency or critical incident.

Upon the declaration of a critical incident, the CIRT chair will appoint appropriate members to the augmented CIRT based on the nature of the incident. In most cases, the augmented CIRT will include all members of the standing CIRT group.

Throughout a situation that has been identified as an incident or critical incident that requires campus notifications, OHIO’s Executive Response Group (ERG) will remain fully apprised of both the University’s operational response and all planned communication strategies and messaging based on the situation at hand.

  • Depending on the nature of a crisis, OHIO’s Senior Director of Communications or OHIO’s Emergency Programs Manager is responsible for informing the University’s ERG through the Chief of Staff in the President’s Office.

3. Communicating the University’s response

Once the need for emergency communications has been identified, UCM will assess target audiences and appropriate methods of communication in coordination with CIRT and/or University Executive Response Group. Compliance with the Clery Act, HIPAA and FERPA will be ensured throughout this process.

  • Based on the known scope of the incident, and guidance from Incident Command, CIRT and University leadership, UCM will utilize some, or all, of the following distribution channels (see Appendix B for additional distribution channel details):
    • Ohio University Alerts (www.ohio.edu/alert)
    • Text message
    • Campus e-mail (@ohio.edu accounts)
    • Outdoor emergency notification system
    • Non-technical methods (on-the-ground teams, bullhorns, posted alerts, etc.)
    • Ohio University’s Facebook and Twitter accounts
  • Alerts will be issued immediately unless a notification, in the judgment of OUPD, other first responders or campus officials, would compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to or otherwise mitigate the emergency.

The specific roles and responsibilities of individual UCM team members are outlined in Appendix A; however, communication planning may include some, or all, of the following measures:

  • UCM will coordinate the release of all external institutional communication, including official statements from appropriate University officials.
  • Based on the nature of the incident, and guidance from Incident Command, CIRT and University leadership, UCM will utilize some, or all, of the following distribution channels (see Appendix B for additional distribution channel details):
    • Ohio University Alerts (www.ohio.edu/alert)
    • Text message
    • Campus e-mail (@ohio.edu accounts)
    • Outdoor emergency notification system
    • Non-tech methods (on-the-ground teams, bullhorns, posted alerts, etc.)
    • Ohio University’s Facebook and Twitter accounts
  • Designate an official spokesperson. Depending on the nature of the situation, OHIO’s Chief of Police, Emergency Programs Manager or the Senior Director of Communication (or their designee) will typically serve as the lead OHIO official to communicate with the media.
    • In some instances, experts or other sources may be designated to complement the University’s official response.
  • Communicate regular and continuous updates
  • Debrief and evaluate communications following an incident or critical incident

Appendix A: Emergency Communication: UCM Roles/Responsibilities

Vice President, University Communications and Marketing

  • Serves as UCM’s representative on OHIO’s on Executive Response Group
  • Guides executive leadership regarding emerging and imminent critical events
  • Serves as backup spokesperson to the Senior Director of Communication
  • Assists in the development and distribution of appropriate messaging
  • Supports communications outcomes across campus and helps ensure they are aligned with University priorities.

Senior Director, Communication

  • Leads strategic direction for the University’s internal and external communications
  • Develops and disseminates strategic messaging and communications plans with clear line of sight to OHIO’s mission, vision, goals and strategic priorities
  • Serves as University spokesperson on reputational and high-level issues
  • Forecasts potential reputational issues and manages messaging in consultation with senior leadership
  • Advises leadership regarding necessary emergency communications
  • Works with staff and leadership to recognize internal and external communications opportunities and solutions, and defines and executes appropriate strategies to support them
  • Ensures that all aspects of the department are organized and staffed to achieve maximum success
  • Manages day-to-day activities of the department
  • Supports communications professionals across campus to ensure that communications outcomes are aligned with University priorities
  • Represents OHIO at on-campus and off-campus events

Communications and PR Strategist

  • Responsible for planning and conducting media relations programs designed to create and maintain a favorable public image for Ohio University
  • Develops comprehensive media relations strategy and manages media relations team to those standards
  • Develops and implements strategy to build relationships with local, state and national members of the media
  • Team leader for the media pitch program – creates pitch strategy
  • Researches and reports on trends in higher education reporting
  • Actively maintains and updates OHIO’s experts directory
  • Monitors newspapers, television news broadcasts and other outlets to see what the media is saying about OHIO and devises strategies to address misinformation and reports on OHIO’s representation in the media
  • Manages the team that serves as the primary point of contact for incoming media inquiries related to University issues, events, and initiatives
  • Provides strategic communications counsel to colleagues throughout the University
  • Acts as secondary University spokesperson when required
  • Represents OHIO at on-campus and off-campus events
  • Develops and participates in communications services team on-call phone rotation for afterhours access
  • Manages film location agreements and coordinates with relevant university personnel on arrangements for filming by students or outside companies.
  • Monitors rankings websites to determine best options for promotion.

Communications Specialist III, Media Relations

  • Facilitates all levels of internal and external communications between local, regional and national media and internal stakeholders
  • Develops and maintains positive relationship with local, regional and national media and the University’s embedded communicators
  • Represents OHIO at on-campus and off-campus events
  • Writes news releases and works with communications specialist III, experts on pitching strategy
  • Facilitates press release distribution strategy
  • Arranges and facilitates news conferences when appropriate
  • Triages and tracks daily media inquiries; escalates when appropriate
  • Arranges media interviews and responds to media
  • Provides strategic communications counsel to colleagues throughout the University
  • Prepares and disseminates daily news clippings for leadership
  • Actively maintains and updates media relations contacts locally, regionally and nationally
  • Monitors breaking news in higher education, generally, and topical to Ohio University, specifically
  • Pitches story ideas to local, regional and national media
  • Participates in communications services team on-call phone rotation for after-hours access
  • Manages events posting to the Calendar of University Events

Associate Director, Social Media Strategy and/or Senior Manager, University Social Media

  • Helps to assess real-time social media coverage/conversation
  • Works with the Senior Director of Communication and Vice President of University Communications and Marketing to support communication through the University’s official social media channels, primarily via X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, during a potential or ongoing critical incident as needed

Manager, Academic Social Media

  • Helps to assess real-time social media coverage/conversation
  • Works with the Senior Director of Communication and Vice President of University Communications and Marketing to support additional communication through ithe University’s official academic college social media channels during a potential or ongoing critical incident as needed.

Additional University roles and responsibilities during a situation that has been identified as an incident and/or critical incident are available in OHIO’s Emergency Operations Plan.

Appendix B: Emergency Communications: Resources/Vehicles

The following methods of communication are available across OHIO and may be utilized in the event of a campus emergency. It is important to note that the usage of these tools will depend on the particular circumstances present during the situation or incident – Not every communication tool will be utilized in every situation.

OHIO Alert (Web/Text/Email)

Ohio University's OHIO Alert system allows authorized users to send automated emergency notifications to each of Ohio University’s campuses via web, e-mail and text messaging when deemed necessary and appropriate.

OHIO Alert (Web)

The OHIO Alert notification system is the University’s most utilized method for notifying the University community of a potential or developing life, health and safety situation at one or more of OHIO’s campus locations. The system has been designed to deliver timely, important campus information in the event of an emergency. OHIO Alerts are color-coded according to the magnitude of the incident and any life/health/safety implications —

  • GREEN for informational and general campus safety/operations updates (forecast monitoring for inclement weather; routine campus maintenance, scheduled campus closures, planned emergency training exercises, etc)
  • YELLOW for urgent information that risks impacting campus safety and/or operations (severe weather warnings, unscheduled campus delays, emergency campus maintenance that affects regular campus operations )
  • RED for critical situations that require the immediate attention of, or action by, the University community (emergency campus closures, imminent threats to campus life/health/safety that require immediate community action and attention)

OHIO Alert (Text)

Ohio University utilizes and maintains an emergency notification system tool that allows it to share important life, health and/or safety information with the University community directly to their cellular phone numbers when deemed necessary. These text alerts provide important information and guidance in the event of a potential or imminent situation that could affect the well-being of the University community.

Note: We encourage all students, faculty and staff to keep their contact information current to help us ensure that OHIO is able to share timely messaging when needed. Instructions for reviewing and updating your contact information are available online.

OHIO Alert (Email)

Ohio University's official email communications platform is often utilized during situations or critical incidents that require additional context or insight beyond an OHIO Alert via web or text. This method of communication is also utilized to help amplify any campus safety instructions and/or other protective measures that are being shared with the University community.

Additional Communication Methods

OHIO Alert (Social Media)

Following communication through the University’s primary channels (web, text and email), Ohio University may communicate through its official social media channels, primarily via X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, during a potential or ongoing critical incident.

Outdoor Emergency Notification System (Siren/PA system)

The Athens campus has an outdoor emergency notification system (audible siren/PA), which may be used to notify the campus community of weather-related situations or other emergencies as deemed necessary by the university. The outdoor emergency notification system will sound from six locations (or each site may be activated independently). An outdoor emergency notification will start with the sounding of a pre-programmed tone and continue with a pre-recorded or live verbal announcement. An audible educational test of the outdoor emergency notification system occurs each academic semester.

Digital Signage

Ohio University may share critical incident communications via the digital display systems that are prominently installed in most buildings on the Athens campus, as well as many buildings at the regional campuses.

Note: When needed, the University may also utilize non-technical means of communication, including: on-the-ground notifications teams, outdoor bullhorns, printed alerts, etc.