(Doc. T99-060)
(Effective January 1, 2024)

These administrative standards are issued by the President’s Office pursuant to the Board of Trustees’ Policy on Emergency Management and Business Continuity (DOC. T99-060 revised December 14, 2011).

The University’s emergency management and business continuity activities support and promote the safety and security of each campus. The goal is to create a resilient University with effective crisis and consequence management capabilities.

• Each Chancellor or designee shall appoint an individual(s) on each campus who is responsible for emergency management, business continuity, and implementation of these standards.
• Campus emergency management and business continuity programs will be guided by standards issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency as applied to the higher education environment.
• The University will take an all-hazards approach to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from impacts associated with any natural or human-caused emergency or disaster.
• The University will employ a systemwide integrated multidisciplinary approach to emergency management and business continuity to prepare each campus and the President’s Office for emergencies and disasters.
• The University will coordinate and collaborate on emergency management and business continuity across the university system. The systemwide Enterprise Risk Management program will facilitate this systemwide collaboration.

Emergency Management Plans

• Each campus will maintain an all-hazards, comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP) for the campus that addresses prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery coordination and capabilities.
  • The campus CEMP will be reviewed and when necessary, updated on a periodic basis.
  • Campuses must provide an electronic copy of the CEMP to the systemwide Enterprise Risk Management program at least every two years, and an updated version whenever the CEMP is updated.
• In support of the emergency management program, each campus will maintain a campus-wide emergency management team consisting of multiple disciplines and core functions essential to prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery operations.
• Each campus will participate in the systemwide Enterprise Risk Management program to identify, assess and prioritize risk across the university system. Each campus will support the development, implementation and assessment of mitigation strategies for priority systemwide risks.

Business Continuity Plans

• Each campus will maintain continuity of operations plans and capabilities to ensure the campus can continue operations during times of emergency or compromised operations.
  • Business continuity plans should identify functions and operations that must continue during times of emergency or compromised operations, as well as the resources needed to support these operations.