Subscribe to LSUWire
Send this to a friend
| Subscribe to LSUWire
|
|
Send this to a friend
|
| BATON ROUGE – With the peak months of hurricane season upon us, several Baton Rouge non-profits and the LSU Emergency Operations Center are more prepared to handle a potential disaster, thanks to the work of LSU’s Disaster Science and Management Program, or DSM, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and LSU Honors College service-learning classes. From emergency plans to hazard analysis, students are helping area organizations make sure that when the next big hurricane comes around, they are ready. Last semester, students in DSM Assistant Professor Rachel Dowty’s Fundamentals of Emergency Management class partnered with a number of local non-profits to identify agency needs and develop emergency plans for each organization. Agency representatives from the Urban Restoration Economic Corporation, Women’s Community Rehabilitation Center and Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center met with student groups throughout the semester to familiarize students with the inner workings of their agencies and to collaborate on what an emergency plan would need to address. As the students delved deeper into the designs, they found that working with real agencies meant they would have to be creative. With the agencies’ needs ranging from safe evacuation of residential facilities to protecting confidential information, students realized that the same plan was not going to work for each group. “Students not only have the opportunity to engage with a local non-profit organization, ask questions and gain a full understanding of what that organization does for our community, but they also learn how an emergency plan must be specific to an organization,” said Dowty. At the conclusion of the semester, students presented their plans to agency representatives and provided them with bound copies of their emergency management plans. In addition, several of the groups provided the agencies with emergency “kits” that included tools they would need to implement their plans, including glow-in-the-dark tape for exits, warning whistles and flashlights. Dowty says this service-learning project provided a much-needed service for non-profits, which increasingly are state mandated to have an emergency plan but are limited by financial or time restraints. “Students came away from the course feeling more empowered by not only their ability to effectively plan for and understand emergency responses for themselves and their families, but also their ability to really have an impact on the community through local non-profit organizations,” said Dowty. This fall, Dowty’s Fundamentals of Emergency Management class will be developing emergency plans in partnership with Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area. While students in Dowty’s class helped agencies prepare for emergencies, another DSM class helped assess environmental hazards on campus – information that will be used for the development of a campus hazard mitigation plan. Service-learning students in last spring’s Fundamentals of Hazards Analysis course surveyed the campus population to investigate people’s hazard awareness, past hazard experience, and the use of campus early warning tools, and presented the data to LSU’s Office of Public Safety and DSM for use in their application for an emergency preparedness grant. Students also provided invaluable information on the impacts and occurrence of natural and technological hazards. If this grant is awarded, the data from the service-learning project will be incorporated into the plan and will aid the public safety department in developing mitigation strategies to make the LSU community more prepared for a disaster. “The willingness to work hard and the commitment of students to this class was exceptional,” said assistant professor Melanie Gall, instructor of the class. “Students were able to combine their theoretical classroom knowledge with hands-on experience. They experienced the challenges of collecting data and conducting surveys. Aside from theoretical knowledge, the students learned skills that will aid them in other classes and future careers – team work, tolerance and organizational skills.” Gall’s class will continue its work with the campus hazard mitigation plan in her class in the spring. In addition to the work by classes in the Disaster Science and Management Program, last fall’s Honors 2000 “Critical Analysis and Social Responsibility: The Human Response to Disaster and Disease” students also assisted LSU in making the campus more prepared in the event of a hurricane. Students interviewed LSU faculty, staff and students who were on campus in 2005 about their experiences during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as those who were on hand for Hurricane Gustav. The five sections of Honors 2000 focused on different areas, with a few of the sections focusing on how people themselves reacted and others focusing on the individual’s perceptions of the university’s disaster response. Each student conducted and transcribed two interviews with faculty, staff or senior students. Results were categorized into similar experiences or responses, and analyzed for recommendations and commendations regarding LSU’s disaster response. “It was a good learning experience for the students,” said Lawrence Rouse, assistant professor. “Students really gained from going out to talk to people and learned from interacting with people they didn’t know very well. They were able to learn how different people reacted not only to Hurricane Katrina but also how they reacted to Gustav.” The students’ findings were shared at a presentation to Honors students and invited guests at the end of the semester. Their reports were also presented to LSU Student Government and the Emergency Operations Center. In 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the LSU campus opened its doors to respond to the needs of neighboring communities and their citizens. Today, this rich tradition of helping others continues through the efforts of service-learning students. For more information about service-learning at LSU, visit the Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership’s at www.ccell.lsu.edu or contact Program Director Jan Shoemaker at 225-578-9264. - 30 - |
 |  |  |
|