Crisis Management: Una To Respond To Simulated Disaster Thursday

Aug. 02, 2010

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@zo23.com, 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 University of North Alabama 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 University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama 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 University of North Alabama 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: zo23.com and zo23.com/unaworks/.