Harrisburg Area Community College Disaster Resistant University Program

As Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC)–Central Pennsylvania’s Community College–began the effort to update its emergency management program, the college first needed to determine its program’s baseline for comparison with standards and regulations regarding emergency management programs. HACC contracted with Delta to perform the assessment based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Resistant University program and the National Fire Protection Association’s Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs, 2007 edition. The purpose of this assessment was to examine existing programs, policies, plans, and procedures currently in place to protect the people, environment, and facilities at all of HACC’s campuses, with the goal of increasing the institution’s resilience to emergencies and disasters.

Delta met with HACC’s representatives and reviewed HACC’s policies, plans, and procedures regarding emergency management as they pertain to each of the four phases of the comprehensive emergency management cycle: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Concurrently, Delta toured each of HACC’s five campuses to identify strengths and weaknesses of their respective campus-specific emergency management programs.

Following the documentation review and campus visits, Delta produced for HACC a detailed audit report that analyzed and discussed Delta’s findings and provided a set of recommendations for strengthening the college’s emergency management program.