Purpose

This policy addresses the authority for closing a campus in the event of an emergent condition that jeopardizes public health or safety. It excludes inclement weather that is covered under a separate policy.

Policy

Tidewater Community College shall provide a safe environment for faculty, staff, students, and visitors to the college in the event of extraordinary circumstances. Examples of such circumstances include emergent severe weather, such as a tornado, or a utility outage resulting in disruption of essential services to a campus or off-campus location. Such emergent conditions may jeopardize public health or safety and may, therefore, require modifications to normal operations.

The College President has delegated to the provost/chief campus administrator of the affected campus, and to the appropriate college vice president for district office facilities, the authority to respond to extraordinary circumstances in the interest of public health or safety. In the instance of an emergent severe weather event, such as a tornado, the campus provost/chief campus administrator/appropriate college vice president for the affected location shall implement procedures that cause personnel to be moved to safe locations for the duration of the event. In the event of emergent potentially hazardous circumstances, such as a utility outage that jeopardizes public health or safety, the campus provost/chief campus administrator/appropriate college dean for the affected location shall take such action as necessary to provide a safe environment for faculty, staff, students, and visitors, including closing the campus or offices or portions thereof, if appropriate. When the potentially hazardous circumstances are restricted to one building or to a limited area of a campus, without widespread impact, the campus provost/chief campus administrator/appropriate college vice president for the affected location shall direct which actions should be taken. The campus provost/chief campus administrator/appropriate college vice president for the affected location will notify the College President of the extraordinary circumstances, providing an assessment of the situation, the action taken, the anticipated time for repairs if required, and the expected time of return to normal operations.

When an emergent, potentially hazardous event is sufficiently widespread that it affects both a campus and the co-located district office facilities, the appropriate campus provost/chief campus administrator shall coordinate the response with the appropriate college vice president. In such cases, one of the administrators, normally the affected campus provost/chief campus administrator shall make the required report to the College President, addressing actions taken for both the campus and the co-located district office facilities.

Implementation

The Vice President for Administration, in coordination with the campus provosts and the Vice President for Information Systems, shall be responsible for developing and maintaining procedures that are consistent with this policy and that comply with applicable policies and procedures of the Virginia Community College System and the Commonwealth of Virginia.