Rhodes University is legally responsible for ensuring that necessary and appropriate actions are taken to protect people and property from the consequences of emergencies and disasters that may take place suddenly or develop slowly.
This Emergency Management Plan (EMP) serves as an executive document for responding to emergency situations that are of such magnitude as to cause a significant disruption to normal operations in all areas or portions of campus.
Through its Emergency Management Plan, Rhodes aims to act in the interests of safety and security needs of all staff and students, protecting lives and property through effective use of University and community resources.
This EMP is intended to serve as a framework for coordinating efforts by senior management and operational staff who are the primary responders in the event of any emergency. The relevant staff should have a clear understanding of what they are supposed to do and what others will be doing.
Emergency management generally addresses four areas of concern, namely: (i) reducing risks and hazards, (ii) preparing resources to respond to any emergency, (iii) responding to the actual emergency event, such as dealing with damage caused by the hazard and limiting further damage, and (iv) returning to its original functional state (or as close as possible to this state) before the incident.
The EMP thus plays an important role in supporting institutional resilience – the ability to deal with uncertainty and respond effectively to unexpected events whilst retaining core properties or functions. The University’s resilience is informed by its ability to reduce the size and frequency of emergencies (vulnerability) and also improve its ability to manage emergency situations effectively and to recover quickly (adaptive capacity).
Each emergency situation requires specific responses in terms of required resources and appropriate procedures. For this reason, the document provides comprehensive instructions and information for responding to a variety of critical incidents.
Last Modified: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 08:57:44 SAST