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Emergency Communication

Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES

It is crucial that emergency situations involving the Fuller community be reported in an accurate and timely manner to both emergency responders and members of the Fuller community. During an emergency, please keep land and cell phone lines clear except when necessary to report serious hazards or injuries.

Fuller will immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on the campus. Fuller will also provide follow-up information to the community after the initial notification, using the communication methods described below under How the Fuller Community Receives Emergency Information.

Reporting an Emergency

If you are at a Fuller campus when an emergency occurs, call 911. Notify the Department of Campus Safety at 626.584.5444 immediately after you have called 911. They will then respond to and contact designated members of the Fuller Emergency Management Committee (EMC).

Determining an Emergency

When the Director of Auxiliary Services (oversees the Department of Campus Safety), or their designee, or a designated member of Fuller’s Emergency Management Committee is made aware of a significant emergency or danger to the Fuller community, upon confirmation, notification will immediately be sent out. If the reported emergency is either not immediately identifiable as significant or not readily confirmed, the Director of Auxiliary Services or designee, or a designated member of the Emergency Management Committee will contact one or more designated members of the Emergency Management Committee and will first confirm the nature and details of the event before notifying the Fuller community. Confirmation may also be obtained from sources such as a National Weather Service report, a police department or fire station announcement, or notice from a local health department. The Director of Auxiliary Services or designee, or a designated Emergency Management Committee member, has the discretion to immediately send out notices to the Fuller community without prior review of another designated member of the Emergency Management Committee, when the situation warrants. 

Determining Segment or Segments of Campus to Receive Notification and Content of Notification

The Director of Auxiliary Service or designee, or a designated member of the Emergency Management Committee, will notify all members of the Fuller community that could be affected by the emergency. If, for example, an emergency is happening near the Texas campus, the situation may or may not require notifying students and employees at the Pasadena campus as well. Or, a police/fire emergency near the Pasadena campus may require a notification only to the Pasadena campus or on-campus residents. Or, in the case of a gas leak, it may be decided to only notify those individuals in the building that has the gas leak if it is not impacting other operations of the seminary. The Director of Auxiliary Services, or a designated member of the Emergency Management Committee, will determine the scope of the emergency and content of the emergency communication before sending out notification. Prepared communication templates will be used when appropriate. In cooperation with designated member(s) of the Emergency Management Committee, a continuing assessment of the situation will occur and additional segments of the campus community may be notified if a situation warrants such action. In addition, emergency communication will have as much pertinent information as is known at the time and as much as can be communicated to a particular device (some, like SMS, are limited by character length). Because priority is given to notifying the Fuller community as quickly as possible, subsequent communication will have additional information beyond the initial contact and will be translated into Korean and Spanish when possible. 

Initiation of Notification System

The Director of Auxiliary Services or designee, or a designated member of the Emergency Management Committee, will log into the Everbridge Mass Notification System, to initiate the emergency notification process. Or, in smaller-scale emergencies, not involving the entire campus, for example, members of the Emergency Management Committee, Campus Safety, Housing and Residential Community, supervisors, or coworkers will initiate the notification through fire alarms, signs posted on building exits or entrances, targeted communications (email, phone, or text), megaphones, or other means, as appropriate. Depending on the scope of the emergency, designated member(s) of the Emergency Management Committee, in coordination with the individual that sent out the initial communication, may prepare or send out follow-up communication using any of the above methods of communication, as appropriate.

HOW THE FULLER COMMUNITY RECEIVES EMERGENCY INFORMATION

In appropriate circumstances, faculty, staff, and students will receive information sent directly to them via the Everbridge Mass Notification System, e-mail, or direct communication from coworkers, supervisors, Emergency Management Committee members, Campus Safety, or Housing and Residential Community. In other cases, emergency notifications will be communicated through fire alarms, signs posted on building exits or entrances, targeted communications (email, phone, or text), megaphones, or other means, as appropriate.

  • Everbridge Mass Notification: The Everbridge Mass Notification emergency communication system allows Fuller to send messages directly to community members through email, mobile phone, office phone, home telephone, and SMS/text message. Students provide this information through the "Personal Information" section of Fuller's student information system, which feeds into Banner. Employees provide this information through ADP Employee Self Service. Therefore, it is important that personal contact information be up-to-date, and updated when no longer current. Specific instructions for updating personal contact information for the Everbridge Mass Notification System are available here. The Everbridge Mass Notification System is only used for testing and emergency communications, and is not used for faculty, staff, or student outreach marketing.
  • Emergency Information Web page and Banner: Fuller's emergency information webpage functions as an informational blog for Fuller during significant emergencies. This page also includes disaster preparedness information. Ongoing updates regarding an emergency or disaster impacting Fuller may be posted on the emergency information webpage. Or, a customized banner at the top of the Fuller website may be used to share time-sensitive information or link to a dedicated emergency or disaster page for more complex or long-term emergencies or disasters. Designated members of the Emergency Management Committee post information and decisions affecting Fuller's community on the site in a timely fashion.

Upon confirmation that a significant emergency or dangerous situation exists, Fuller will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification and initiate the emergency notification system, unless issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of the Director of Auxiliary Services, or designated member(s) of the Emergency Management Committee, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. If an emergency notification is sent out because of an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees due to a Clery Crime, and if the notice otherwise meets the requirements of a Timely Warning Notice, including being sent to everyone on campus, a separate Timely Warning Notice will not be issued. However, Fuller will provide adequate follow-up information to the community as needed.

Evacuation Information and Procedures

Based on the nature of the event, the need to shelter in place, or begin a systematic evacuation of the campus or certain areas of campus, will be assessed prior to an emergency notification being issued. Appropriate instructions or information about how the campus will be secured, if applicable, will be communicated in the emergency notification.

Fuller’s evacuation procedures are based on the NIMS (National Incident Management System) model. Fuller’s Emergency Management Committee meets on a regular basis, and focuses on coordinating or facilitating emergency management/preparedness-related training and exercises for the Fuller community, among other responsibilities. This includes reviewing or updating evacuation procedures for various types of incidents. Evacuation placards are included in most on-campus administrative buildings.

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION PROCEDURE TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY

Immediately following a disaster, Fuller Seminary will be in contact with appropriate personnel and offices in the City of Pasadena to seek help as needed, and to make a situation report regarding any deaths or injuries to persons; the level and extent of destruction or major damage to buildings and other structures; and existing and potential problems with utilities. A primary and initial contact at this point will be the applicable city’s Emergency Management Coordinator, typically in the Fire Department. Additional contacts may be appropriate with other City offices, including the Police Department.  Fuller’s Director of Public Relations or designee will be the primary contact point between Fuller and these organizations.

Secondly, we will communicate with our institutional neighbors to help coordinate a neighborhood response. This will be especially important if the level of disaster were to overwhelm the response capacities of our City's services--including fire and police departments, hospitals, and other organizations. Anticipating the possibility of such a situation, in Pasadena, our neighborhood's major institutions are coordinated to provide emergency services and response assistance, both for our own staff as well as neighborhood residents who may come to our various campuses and offices for assistance.

Third, we will also provide, in quick fashion, accurate information and communication with the media. Further, we will closely monitor all communications to ensure the accuracy of information presented to the public as well as our Fuller community. Also, through the Fuller emergency information webpage at www.fuller.edu/emergency or a banner link at the top of Fuller’s website, we will provide rapid and frequently updated disaster situation reports and updates, as applicable, which will be immediately available to the public and to our Fuller community including students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends. 

Recognizing that rapid changes are endemic to disaster situations, we will be in ongoing communication, as applicable, with the City of Pasadena, our neighboring institutions, the media, the public, and the Fuller community to keep them accurately informed of activities, progress, and needs.

Communicating Information to the Public

When it is required for a period of time for the seminary to close its operations in whole, or in part, to ensure the safety of its employees, employees will be notified by senior leadership as soon as possible. Each supervisor is responsible to notify each employee he or she supervises. (Each supervisor should have available outside of the office the home or cell phone numbers of each individual he or she will need to contact.) In the event that the Pasadena campus must close for an extended period of time, a recorded message will be provided on the main switchboard line 626.584.5200, to notify students, employees, and the general public of the closure.

TESTING AND ANNOUNCING EVERBRIDGE MASS NOTIFICATION

The Everbridge Mass Notification system is tested at least once a year, generally around the third week of Fall Quarter, by the Director of Auxiliary Services or designee. This ensures all students (even those who registered late) are included in the test. The test goes to various methods of communication that Fuller has on record for each student in Banner and for each employee in Employee Self Service. These tests are announced in advance on the Employee Site, the Quad, or by other appropriate methods. The announcement generally includes a link to Fuller’s emergency communication procedures at https://www.fuller.edu/Emergency-Communication/.

From time to time, Fuller’s Emergency Management Committee, or Health & Safety Committee, may conduct other tests, such as a test of building evacuation procedures by initiating an evacuation drill, test of the community’s earthquake response typically in coordination with the Great ShakeOut!, or tabletop exercises on various topics such as active shooter, wildfires, etc. 

These tests are documented by the Department of Campus Safety or the Emergency Management Committee, as applicable, and include a description of the exercise, date, time, and whether the test was announced.

The above procedures are applicable to the Pasadena Campus. See the Emergency Response & Evacuation Procedures for the Arizona and Texas campuses in their respective Annual Security Reports.