Alabama State University News August 13, 2015 Safety Conference Held on ASU Campus by Deonshay Danson As students prepare to return to campus for the start of the 2015-16 academic year, Alabama State University's Department of Public Safety (DPS) is focused on ensuring the safety of all who study, live and work at ASU with a campus safety training. ASU's DPS staff are attending a three-day training titled "Managing Critical Incidents for Higher Education." The training, which took place in the ballroom of the John Garrick Hardy Student Center Aug. 11-13, was presented by Texas A&M University's Engineering Extension (TEEX) Service. TEEX offers practical training in emergency preparedness to law enforcement, fire and rescue and other first responders across the nation. Their courses are grant-funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Jeff Stine, one of the representatives from TEEX, said that the course is both strategic and practical in ensuring that first responders are prepared if a "critical incident" were to occur on campus. "What we have here is an incident management class to understand how an emergency can happen on campus, what to do when it happens and how to plan for it and how to be prepared to respond to those emergency situations," Stine said. The training addressed how to respond to several emergency scenarios such as inclement weather, bomb threats or a campus shooter situation. The course attracted not only ASU's Department of Public Safety, but also University health officials, the Montgomery Police Department, Montgomery Fire Department, officials from Maxwell Air Force Base, Homeland Security, Haynes Ambulance and other agencies. ASU Police Chief Jim Graboys said the course is beneficial because it allows both ASU officials and officials from outside agencies to train together and develop plans of action in the case of an emergency situation on campus. "The idea of the training is to make everyone continue to think and plan about how to work together to be more effectively in protecting our students at ASU," Graboys said. "This is a University geared toward giving people an opportunity to grow, expand and better their lives, and it's hard to do that if you are not safe. That's why the ASU Department of Public Safety places a primary emphasis on student safety. This training is a great enhancement to the efforts that we already have in place." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.