Campus safety receives face-lift

At UNC-Asheville, Sylvia Farrington is the go-to person for campus safety, public health emergencies and natural disasters.

Farrington was appointed interim director of emergency management last week — the most recent appointment in a string of emergency coordinator positions across the UNC system.

The money for these positions largely comes from money set aside in the last few years for campus safety.

The trend was prompted by a study on what UNC-system schools need to do to improve safety.

The UNC Campus Safety Task Force, created in 2007 by President Erskine Bowles in response to the Virginia Tech shootings that year, made several recommendations to guide universities in making campuses safer.

Farrington’s position reflects an increasingly proactive mentality in dealing with emergency crises.

“In general, since the Virginia Tech shootings, UNC campuses have all taken a step forward in safety measures,” said Brent Herron, associate vice president for campus safety and emergency operations for the UNC-System.

“What the task force did was to address issues and make recommendations to campuses about what they needed to focus on.”

The task force’s suggestions are only a general guide, and individual campuses are largely free to interpret the suggestions as they see fit, Herron said.

That’s what UNC-A did with Farrington’s position. It took the task force’s recommendation to have an emergency coordinator on campus and tweaked the position to fit the university and community’s needs by also making Farrington responsible for public health emergencies, such as flu pandemics.

“That was UNC-A’s decision to combine all of those aspects,” Herron said.

UNC-Chapel Hill hired Ron Campbell in August to be emergency management coordinator. He is primarily responsible for campus safety.

Campbell was previously employed in emergency management in Guilford and Forsyth counties.

Campbell said he views every part of emergency planning as being governed by four phases: preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

“Preparedness is ongoing,” Campbell said. “Plans must be kept current.”

Campbell recently reviewed emergency plans for campus buildings such as Kenan Stadium and has also been preparing for large-scale outbreaks of the H1N1 virus.

As of last week, more than 700 suspected cases of H1N1 had been reported on the UNC-CH campus since the start of fall semester.

There are plans for a partnership with Orange County officials and a committee on campus to focus on the issue, Campbell said.

Farrington, a 13-year veteran of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also is forging ties with the community around the UNC-A campus.

“One of the things in my personal experience, is that it takes a community to prepare, respond and recover,” Farrington said.


Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.