Training and exercises
Homeland Security Exercises and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)
Exercises are a key component of national preparedness. They provide the whole community with the opportunity to shape planning, assess and validate capabilities, and address areas for improvement. HSEEP provides a set of guiding principles for exercise and evaluation programs, as well as a common approach to exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning.
Through the use of HSEEP, the whole community can develop, execute and evaluate exercises that address preparedness priorities. These priorities are informed by risk and capability assessments, findings, corrective actions from previous events, and external requirements. These priorities guide the overall direction of an exercise program and the design and development of individual exercises. These priorities guide planners as they identify exercise objectives and align them to capabilities for evaluation during the exercise. Exercise evaluation assesses the ability to meet exercise objectives and capabilities by documenting strengths, areas for improvement, capability performance and corrective actions in an After-Action Report/Improvement Plan (AAR/IP). Through improvement planning, organizations take the corrective actions needed to improve plans, build and sustain capabilities, and maintain readiness.
Visit the EH&S website to sign up for trainings that will increase your preparedness in the event of an emergency.
Tabletop exercises
In order to maintain a high level of readiness in the event of a disaster or emergency, the Department of Emergency Management hosts semi-annual tabletop exercises (TTX) with University Leadership.
Past scenarios have involved:
- Severe weather
- Chemical spill
- Protest / riot / civil unrest
- Cyber attack focused on critical infrastructure
- Active shooter
Other real world events include flooding (which replaced one spring TTX), the Argenta explosion (replaced one TTX) and the pandemic (which replaced the scheduled human disease TTX).
The full-scale exercise Silver Crucible complex coordinated terrorist attack took the place of a fall TTX as well, as Redfield Campus was the main target.
Managing Critical Incidents at Institutions of Higher Education: A Whole Community Approach was a FEMA eight-hour training, which took the place of a fall TTX.
There have also been commencement and sporting event tabletop exercises that have been completed specifically for those planning teams.
The University has also cooperated in interagency training with all of our regional partners to build on our professional relationships and learn best practices within each industry.
The University also sends a team to attend the Department of Homeland Security Seminar for Higher Education each year. The National Seminar and Tabletop Exercise Series is a set of events, each with unique objectives and outcomes, designed for the higher education community. Each event in the series challenges participants with multi-faceted threat-based scenarios that test and strengthen an institution’s preparedness, response and recovery capabilities.
To learn more about this program and the resources available, visit the Department of Homeland Security's campus resilience webpage.
FEMA Independent Study
FEMA offers a self-paced online independent study in emergency management.
Suggested classes
In the upper right-hand corner of each page is a box labeled “Take This Course.” Click the link labeled “Interactive Web Based Course” to begin the training.