By Dr. Andre Marshall, Associate Professor, Director of Fire Testing and Evaluation Center, and Principal of Custom Spray Solutions in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at University of Maryland
Through a new initiative, sponsored by commercial and industrial property insurer FM Global, University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) is reaching out to an important but often overlooked population--college students--about the importance of fire safety on campus.
In service to the campus community, students from FPE worked with FM Global to produce a series of public service announcement (PSA) videos to educate students about fire safety in the residential living environment. These videos provide the fire safety message through student interviews and narratives, and the format is designed to engage students in thinking about the problem and educate them about common misconceptions in fire safety.
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By Joe Desplaines, Business Continuity & Crisis Response Consultant for Districts Mutual Insurance
When I watch the nightly news, or talk to friends, or read about crisis events online, I am continually surprised that those interviewed about crisis preparedness persist in expressing what I believe to be “Magical Thinking.” After all the high profile critical events that have occurred recently, including active shooters, bombings, severe weather all across the country, large scale fires, and computer system hacking, people continue to avoid developing, training, and testing crisis and emergency response plans based on Magical Thinking. And, like most magic, this thinking is an illusion that creates a false sense of security.
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Photo by Todd Chandler
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By David Olson, Assistant Director of Safety for The Master's College and Glenn Klinksiek, CPCU, ARM, MBA, DRM, Knowledge Center Content Manager for URMIA
The University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA)
conducted a survey of its members, “Identifying Risk - A Survey of
Practices in Higher Education,” in early June 2014 to find out how
risk managers anticipate new or emerging risks. More than 125 URMIA
members completed the survey and generated interesting insights into
how the risk identification process. We will share the results in a
series of URMIA Insights articles in the coming months.
Risk identification is an essential part of any effective risk
management program. Risk managers especially need a process to find
unknown or unappreciated risks, to evaluate these risks and then develop
effective risk mitigations strategies. Institutions have long been
aware of well-known risks such as athletic injury, student alcohol
consumption, fire and many more and have methods of addressing these
risks. However, if the risk identification process had worked well,
institutions may have been better prepared to address current hot
button issues such as concussions and campus sexual assault.
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By Sam Florio, Director of Risk Management and Compliance for Santa Clara University
Welcome to the continued board corner on URMIA Insights. Each month, in this space, your board has been provided with an opportunity to communicate with our membership about many of the wonderful initiatives and great work being done by our committees.
I am entering the final year of my three year term and am excited to have had the opportunity to act as board liaison to the membership committee. Keely Sims of the national office has continued her amazing work as our national office liaison and is largely responsible for many of the efficiencies that we have experienced over the past few years.
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Each year, URMIA hosts in-person regional, roundtable, and annual (national) conferences around the country designed to minimize your cost and time away from the office while maximizing your educational and networking opportunities. A complete schedule of our remaining 2014 events is available here. Stay tuned for 2015 regional conference dates and locations to be announced at the 45th Annual Conference.
Read on to learn more about URMIA's upcoming conference schedule including Risky Business Week in November, submit your proposal to host URMIA's 2017 annual conference, access URMIA's updated Third-Party Contract Insurance Guidelines white paper, attend the encore presentation of our URMIA/NAFSA international risk workshop, and more!
Each month, this article provides some of the latest risk management resources, as well as a calendar of upcoming events, webinars, conferences, and other learning opportunities in which you or your campus colleagues may be interested.
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Photo by Emanuele UbOldi
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Help us welcome our newest members, and see what professional updates your colleagues have to share from the last month.
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