Where to go in severe weather

Severe weather season is upon us and MCC is focused on the safety of all. In the event of severe weather, students, employees and visitors are urged to go to the following FEMA designated shelters at each campus:

MCC-Blue River: Arts & Sciences Building
MCC-Business & Technology: Conference Annex
MCC-Longview: Cultural Arts Center
MCC-Maple Woods: Campus Center
MCC-Penn Valley: Education Center
Administrative Center: MCC-Penn Valley – Education Center
Broadway Plaza: MCC-Penn Valley – Education Center
Pioneer/Facility Services Building: Facility Services Annex

For more information and other safety tips visit the MCC Alert Home page.

Kelsey Smith Safety Awareness Seminar draws hundreds, makes news

News teams swarmed the campus at MCC-Blue River for the Kelsey Smith Foundation’s Safety Awareness Seminar. Jana Corrie of the KMBC Channel 9 morning show reported on event preparations every half hour from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and interviewed Dean of Instruction Cheryl Carpenter Davis, psychology instructor Kimberly Glackin, and Greg and Missey Smith, the parents of the murdered teen Kelsey, whom took the stage to educate any and all who would listen.

Fox 4 News sent Terra Hall whose report appeared in long format on the late night news:

http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-kelsey-smiths-parents-keep-her-legacy-alive-warn-young-people-20110413,0,105411.story

Channel 5 News reporter Jonathan Carter delivered this synopsis of the event on the 6 o’clock news:

http://www.kctv5.com/local-video/index.html?grabnetworks={videoid:4643052}

Hundreds of students and individuals from the community learned important facts about maintaining their personal safety, chief among them being to make sure that someone knows where you are, and to fight back immediately at the first location when accosted. “If you reach location number two,” said Greg Smith, “you will not survive.”

Also present to report on the Kelsey Smith Safety Awareness event were on-air personalities from 88.5fm KLJC.

Classroom doors to get new locks

Classrooms across MCC will soon become a little more secure, thanks to a measure just approved by the board of trustees that calls for installation of more than 500 new door locks.

The locks, which will be installed beginning in May, are intended to protect students, faculty and staff in the event of a public safety emergency involving an intruder or other threat to personal safety. Once installed, the doors will be lockable from both inside and outside of the room. Currently, most classroom and conference room doors can only be locked and unlocked from outside of the room and require the use of a key.

“We want to give students, employees and guests peace of mind,” said Bill Hudson, chief of campus police. “If there is a safety threat in the building or anywhere on campus, people will be able to close and lock the door to protect themselves from danger.”

MCC’s construction and maintenance crews will be manually installing the new knobs and handles on a schedule that will not interfere will classes or other college business. Installation will begin in May and is expected to be complete by the middle of the fall 2011 semester, according to MCC’s construction superintendent Richard Hill.

FEMA trains colleges at MCC-Blue River

Last week, MCC-Blue River hosted a FEMA-sponsored training for colleges. The training, entitled “Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education,” covered various elements of emergency management.

With recent events serving as a sobering reminder that public safety incidents are difficult to predict and to prevent, campus safety is at the top of local school officials' minds. However, these days, first responders are not the only people who should be prepared to react to emergencies, says MCC-Blue River's Dean of Instruction Cheryl Carpenter Davis.

In addition to MCC campuses and other Kansas City-area colleges, officials from colleges in Jefferson City, St. Joseph, St. Louis, and Pratt, Kan. also attended the training.

The training covered topics such as:

• The phases of emergency management
• Identifying hazards and using risk assessment processes
• Responding using ICS (Incident Command System) and setting up an Emergency Operations Center
• Partnering with the community
• Developing plans; training and testing the plans 
• Engaging the campus community

Participants engage in small group activities during training.

FEMA materials said the premise of the training was to equip six to eight individuals from each institution to “take skills and knowledge back to their own campuses to facilitate the emergency planning process.”

Members of the press were invited to observe the event on Wednesday, February 16. Reporters from The Kansas City Star and the eastern Jackson County publication The Examiner covered the event.

Participants indicated an increased comfort with emergency management after attending the workshop.

“One of the many things I found helpful from attending the training was the guidance the instructors provided in designing sound plans for either man-made or natural emergencies,” said Bob Florence, MCC-Blue River marketing coordinator. “The table-top exercise and other group work were great ways to practice what we learned in the course.”