Toward disaster-resilient universities: A pre-COVID assessment of American institutions of higher education

This article investigates the state of resilience of academic institutions in the Southeastern United States prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on 50 expert interviews with campus emergency management professionals conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, this article advances three findings that contribute to the discourse on disaster-resilient universities. First, some academic institutions appear to have strengthened their emergency management capacities, the result of expanded leadership support, enhanced processes and procedures, clarified roles and responsibilities, increased preparedness and training activities, and investments in staff and resources.

Second, academic institutions face unique emergency management challenges, driven by their competing priorities, dispersed and dynamic campus populations, and inconsistent buy-in from stakeholders. Third, academic institutions are not unified in their approaches to emergency management, differing in both how they structure the emergency management function and in their approaches to risk. These findings reflect the advances and ongoing complexities related to the strengthening of emergency management and resilience-building within higher education settings. The findings also suggest that sustained resilience-building in institutions of higher education requires integrating improvements to emergency management processes and procedures with institution-wide governance reforms that improve collaboration and increase stakeholder support for preparedness efforts.