Sarah Raezler (@sraezler) is a senior information resource specialist for CASE.

“Effective crisis management starts with a plan. While every crisis is different, having a plan that provides a framework for response—and testing and practicing the plan—will allow the institution to focus on the nuances of the crisis at hand rather than routine but important details that can slow response time.”  That’s according to Rae Goldsmith, vice president for advancement resources at CASE.

To help CASE members develop their crisis response frameworks, the CASE InfoCenter developed a resource collection offering:

• Articles and links to books with advice and recommendations
• Case studies about institutional responses to natural disasters and tragedies like campus shootings
• Best practices from CASE award winners
• Crisis communications exercises to test readiness using two fictional scenarios
• Crisis communications and emergency response plans that serve as samples for content, procedures and formatting

Our goal with this collection is to help communications professionals be as prepared as possible to deal with any type of future crisis on their campus—and this preparation includes anticipating, preparing and regularly revising written plans.

A recent CASE survey on communications and marketing trends, covered in Communication Revolution (log-in required) in the July/August issue of CURRENTS magazine, revealed that 72 percent of college, university and independent school communications and marketing offices (of the 318 responding) have a crisis communications plan in place. That still leaves 28 percent without a communications plan ready.

Have you looked at your crisis communications plan recently? Do you have any tips for those institutions that are creating plans?