Colleges and universities regularly conduct emergency preparedness drills on campus. These exercises help teams practice response protocols, communication and decision-making.
But real emergencies rarely remain confined to campus boundaries. Incidents often require coordination with local schools, municipal responders and community organizations.
One operational challenge many school districts face during a crisis is identifying a location where evacuated students can safely reunite with parents or guardians. In many communities, college campuses are among the few places with facilities large enough to support that operation. Gymnasiums, event centers and parking infrastructure can accommodate large numbers of students, families and emergency responders.
At Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, we partnered with the Rock Island–Milan School District and local public safety agencies to run a tabletop exercise exploring how a college campus could serve as a student reunification site during a school emergency.
3 emergency preparedness insights
The exercise was based on a fictional bomb threat at Denkmann Elementary School in Rock Island. School officials receive a call reporting a bomb placed inside the school gymnasium. After identifying a suspicious backpack under the gym bleachers, school leaders contact 911 and district safety officials.
As law enforcement responds, the school district begins evacuation planning and activates a reunification site at Augustana’s Centennial Hall.
In the scenario, hundreds of elementary students would be transported from the school to campus using district buses. Once at Centennial Hall, the facility would operate as a reunification center where parents and guardians could be verified and reunited with their children.
The tabletop exercise allowed participants to walk through the operational decisions required to manage a situation like this, including:
- who makes the decision to evacuate the school
- how transportation to the reunification site is coordinated
- how traffic and crowd control are managed on campus
- how parents are notified and directed to the site
- how communication flows between the school district, law enforcement and the college
Participants also discussed logistical considerations such as bus staging, warming areas, crowd management and building security once students and families begin arriving.
Three insights emerged from the exercise:
- Colleges can play a critical role in community emergency response. Campus facilities may be among the few locations capable of hosting large-scale reunification operations. Planning for this possibility strengthens both campus and community preparedness.
- Coordination must be planned in advance. Transportation logistics, traffic management, building access and security procedures require clear agreements before an incident occurs. These details are difficult to resolve during an active emergency.
- Communication across institutions is essential. School districts, law enforcement and campus leaders must understand how information will be shared and who is responsible for key operational decisions as a situation unfolds.
Considerations for other Institutions
Colleges interested in supporting community emergency response efforts may consider several planning steps:
- Identify facilities that could serve as reunification or shelter sites.
- Establish communication protocols with local school districts and first responders.
- Clarify responsibilities for building access, security and crowd management.
- Conduct tabletop exercises that allow partners to test assumptions and identify gaps.
Colleges and universities are deeply embedded in their communities, and during emergencies campuses may become important operational partners in regional response efforts.
Exercises like this one allow institutions and community partners to test how those relationships function before they are needed in a real crisis.
