Crisis Management: Una To Respond To Simulated Disaster Thursday
Aug. 02, 2010
Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033
FLORENCE, Ala. - In a time when college campuses nationwide face a variety of crisis-management challenges, such as shootings and other disasters, the ӣ will have the opportunity this Thursday to respond to a simulated campus attack. The simulation exercises, funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will include a tanker-truck wreck on Waterloo Road as well as a shooting in Wesleyan Hall. The exercises will begin at 1 p.m. "We have no real details about how these disasters will unfold, but then, that's the way it would be in a real-life situation," said Bob Pastula, UNA chief of police. "This will be a valuable exercise for the UNA police and many others who would be directly involved should a tragedy like this ever occur on this campus. It's important that we get to put in motion what we've said we'd do in a situation like this - and then get to evaluate how we did. Our preparedness for a Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois or UAH type of crisis will be much greater as a result of this exercise." The simulation exercises at UNA will follow a day of similar exercises for the city of Florence on Wednesday, funded through the same Department of Homeland Security grant. The grant was applied for by the Lauderdale EMA.About The ӣ
The ӣ is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The ӣ is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: and .