An Investigation Into Hazard Mitigation Tools at Institutes of Higher Education

Current theories for community planning assert that multiple stakeholders should be involved to improve civic cohesion and implementation. Since an institute of higher education (IHE) operates like a town or city in many ways, it is appropriate that the emergency management planning within an IHE should engage multiple stakeholders. Emergency management planning at an IHE focuses on the students who while adults, are not traditionally valued for their input in emergency management planning. Emergency management leaders at IHEs across the country were surveyed. Following correlation analysis, results indicated that an IHE with student involvement in emergency management planning had an increased likelihood of implementing hazard mitigation tools. The findings will advance discussions of best practices for IHEs and help to engage the most important stakeholders who, until now, have not had their seat at the table, the students. This project supports the inclusion of students as stakeholders in the emergency management planning at IHEs