**July 21-25, 2003 FEMA EM Hi Ed Project Activity Report**

**(1) \"All-Hazards Management and Mitigation In A New Bureaucracy\"
Larry Larson (ASFPM) Presentation:**

July 23, 2003 \-- Received from Larry Larson, CFM, and Executive
Director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, a copy of his
slide presentation on \"All-Hazards Management and Mitigation In A New
Bureaucracy\" given last week at the 28th Annual Natural Hazards
Workshop in Boulder Colorado, as well as permission to use it in the EM
HiEd Project. Forwarded the presentation to the EMI webmaster to upload
to the \"Additional Material\" section of the \"Principles and Practice
of Hazards Mitigation\" course found within the Completed Courses
subsection (http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/completeCourses.asp) of
the \"Academic Emergency Management and Related Courses\" section of the
EM HiEd Project website. This 18-page PowerPoint presentation compares
the status of flood mitigation efforts when the National Flood Insurance
Program was in the Department of Housing and Urban Development before
the creation of FEMA, to what it could well be within the Department of
Homeland Security. Within HUD the primary mission was housing, not flood
damage prevention \-- thus it suffered. Mr. Larson expressed the concern
that the same or similar fate might befall flood damage prevention
efforts within the DHS \-- whose primary mission is terrorism. Notes
that annualized flood damage losses are at \$6 billion, a four-fold
increase from the early 1900s. Also noted that \"per capita damages
increased by more than a factor of 2.5 in the previous century in real
dollar terms\" (see chart on slide 12). My own two-cents worth is that
this can only get worse before it gets better. The presentation should
be up on the web within about one week.

**(2) American Association of Community Colleges Meeting:**

July 25, 2003 \-- Met with Carolyn Richmond Teich (program Associate for
Economic Development), James McKenney (Vice President, Economic
Development and International Programs), Gerard F. Fiala (Senior
Counselor), and Conley Michael Lorose (AACC Newsletter Editor,
*Community College Times*) to discuss possible areas of collaboration
and partnership \-- particularly in regards to investigating ways of
increasing community college engagement in the emergency management and
homeland security training and education fields. From the AACC Mission
Statement:

> \"The American Association of Community Colleges is the primary
> advocacy organization for the nation\'s community colleges. The
> Association represents more than 1,100 \[of approximately 1,600\]
> associate degree-granting institutions and some 10 million students.\"

Spent most of time describing what we each do. Talked about the
possibility of hosting a HiEd Conference devoted exclusively to the
needs of Community Colleges.

**(3) American Coastline University \-- Homeland Security Programs:**

July 22, 2003 \-- Learned today of several Homeland Security Programs at
ACU, Metairie, Louisiana, which offers distance learning courses,
diplomas, certificates and degrees. ACU offers:

> Certificate in Homeland Security and Public Safety
>
> Diploma in Homeland Security and Public Safety
>
> BS in Public Administration Concentration in Homeland Security and
> Public Safety
>
> MPA with a Concentration in Homeland Security and Public Safety
>
> Ph.D. in Public Administration with a Concentration in Homeland
> Security and Public Safety
>
> Postgraduate Certificate in Homeland Security and Public Safety
>
> Postgraduate Diploma Program in Homeland Security and Public Safety

Information on each program can be found on the ACU website at:
http://www.amercoastuniv.edu/homeland.html

**(4) Boulder Hazards Conference Tidbits:**

July 23, 2003 \-- Some notes from the July 13-16, 28th Annual Hazards
Workshop in Boulder \-- did not have time last Activity Report to
include these notes:

From presentation of Eric Holderman, King County, WA Office of Emergency
Management, during first day\'s plenary Session on \"All Hazard
Management and Mitigation in a New Bureaucracy\" (paraphrasing):

> The impact of homeland security at the local level within emergency
> management has been enormous \-- hours and staff are now predominantly
> devoted to terrorism. All-hazards is spoken, but just follow the money
> to see the real story. (Showed a \$20 bill and a penny and noted that
> the \$20 bill represented funding coming down to support
> terrorism-related work and the penny represented money coming down to
> support mitigation and disaster prevention and stated that the real
> priority is terrorism.) Pointed out as an example, that at the
> Washington State Office of Emergency Management, the all-hazards
> exercise officer position has been eliminated and replaced with a
> homeland security exercise officer position. Stated that the bad news
> is that we\'re back to the bad old days of national security civil
> defense. The good news is that \"we\'re getting more money and getting
> more buy-in from other agencies (police) and organizations (media).\"
> Made a plea: \"Don\'t go over to the dark side \-- pendulum will swing
> back to natural hazards some day.\"

From presentation of Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Emergency
Preparedness and Response, DHS, during same plenary session:
(paraphrasing)

> \"Have run into the attitude that FEMA is the only element of DHS that
> does not carry guns and thus is not worth squat.\" Urged patience \--
> stated he got it (the importance of all-hazards emergency management)
> \-- Secretary Ridge gets it, and some day most everyone else will get
> it too.

From presentation of Gregory Smith, American Red Cross, during plenary
session on \"The Hidden Victims of Disaster\" (paraphrasing):

> \"Heinous and large-scale though the events of 9/11 were, they were
> not as bad as it gets. There are a wide variety of natural hazards
> that if they strike at the right place and time will make the losses
> of 9/11 pale in comparison.\"

Marshall Frech, FloodSafety.com, in response to a question during his
presentation on \"Relaying Risk and Prevention: Leveraging New Media to
Raise Public Awareness,\" on why communities too often do so little to
reduce future potential flood losses:

> Stated that he referred to this problem as the \"Chamber of Concrete\"
> mentality \-- concerns with costs and how talk about flood risks in a
> community might adversely effect future economic development.

Kathleen Tierney, in-coming Director of the Natural Hazards Center at
the University of Colorado-Boulder, during her conference concluding
remarks:

> \"The laws of nature were not repealed in the aftermath of 9/11.\" \--
> Referring to the certainty that natural disasters are going to
> continue to be with us in the future as well as the need to devote
> more time, attention and funding to their prevention, reduction,
> mitigation.

**(5) Department of Homeland Security \-- Homeland Security Centers of
Excellence:**

July 23, 2003 \-- Pasted in below is Press Release on search for
academic HS Centers of Excellence:

> **DHS Takes First Step to Select Homeland Security Centers of
> Excellence**
>
> For Immediate Release\
> Office of the Press Secretary\
> July 23, 2003
>
> The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will release this week a
> Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) calling for academic white papers that
> will focus on specific areas related to social science issues. This is
> the first step in the review process for colleges and universities
> that would like to be selected as a Homeland Security Center of
> Excellence (HS-Center). The Department anticipates selecting at least
> one HS-Center by end of November 2003 and up to nine other HS-Centers
> by end of 2004.
>
> \"We are confident that the academic community will play an integral
> role in our mission to ensure our domestic security,\" said Secretary
> Tom Ridge. \"We recognize the strengths brought to bear by our
> higher-education institutions to not only research and develop
> technologies but to also educate the next generation of American
> scientists.\"
>
> The university-based Homeland Security Centers of Excellence
> initiative was developed in response to language contained in the
> Homeland Security Act requesting the establishment of a coordinated,
> university-based system to enhance the Nation\'s homeland security.
> The HS-Centers will be a critical component of our nation\'s defenses
> by providing a dedicated capability that will enhance our ability to
> anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks.
>
> The President\'s budget called for \$10 million in funding for the
> university programs for fiscal year 2004.
>
> \"We anticipate the Centers\' will pursue research opportunities
> across a number of relevant areas in the physical, natural,
> information and chemical sciences and in engineering and the social
> sciences,\" said Under Secretary for Science and Technology, Dr.
> Charles McQueary. \"In addition, universities will be expected to
> coordinate their efforts with relevant Federal Agencies and private
> institutions to minimize duplication of research and development,
> enhance communications between programs and leverage financial
> support.\"
>
> The initial BAA will solicit whitepapers for the 2003 Centers of
> Excellence selection process that will focus on risk-based economic
> modeling on the impact and consequence of terrorism. Whitepapers must
> be submitted electronically and received no later than 4:00PM, Eastern
> Standard Time, on August 11, 2003.
>
> DHS in coordination with Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) will
> develop a team of expert external evaluators who will review the
> submissions based on merit and make recommendations to a select
> committee of the Department of Homeland Security. Candidates will be
> selected and invited to submit full and detailed proposals. Following
> limited site visits, DHS will make an award announcement of one Center
> by the end of November.
>
> Earlier this year, DHS requested that the Association of American
> Universities and National Association of State Universities and Land
> Grant Colleges help identify existing Homeland Security Research
> efforts on university campuses. In that effort, a joint survey was
> conducted that resulted in a significant number of responses from the
> country\'s top research universities indicating that the competition
> to be selected as a HS-Center may be intense.
>
> For more information on the submission process, visit DHS at
> http://www.dhs.gov or Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) at
> http://www.orau.gov/dhsuce.

**(6) Disaster Response Operations and Management \-- Upper Division
Course Development Project:**

July 21, 2003 \-- Received for review from course developer, Dr. David
McEntire, University of North Texas, Session 15, \"Triage and Medical
Care.\"

**(7) George Mason University \-- Research Seminar on Critical
Infrastructures, Technological and Natural Disasters and Public
Policy:**

July 23, 2003 \-- Received from Associate Professor Todd M. La Porte,
School of Public Policy at GMU, an electronic copy of his eight-page
syllabus for the course noted above which was taught this past Spring
Semester \-- and had it posted to the Syllabi Compilation on the EM HiEd
Project website: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/syllabi.asp The
course was co-taught with Research Associate Professor Kevin Thomas.
Contact information can be found on the course syllabus.

**(8) Hazards Risk Management \-- Upper Division Course Development
Project:**

July 21, 2003 \-- Received for review from lead course developer, Greg
Shaw, George Washington University, Session 19, \"Analyze Risks:
Modeling Techniques.\"

**(9) New Directions in Hazards Mitigation\--Breaking the Disaster Life
Cycle, Graduate Course Development Project:**

July 22, 2003 \-- Received for review from lead course developer, Dr.
David Godschalk, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Session
14, \"Ethics and Hazard Mitigation; Applying Ethical Criteria,\" and
Session 15, \"Measuring Hazard Mitigation Success: Issues in Measuring
Mitigation Success.\" Both are approximately 3-hour course sessions.

**(10) New Mexico State University, Las Cruces:**

July 23, 2003 - Talked with Dr. Brian Swain, College of Engineering
(800-523-5996) who is investigating the possibility of the development
of an emergency management and homeland security certificate program at
NWSU-Las Cruces - perhaps in partnership with the Department of Public
Administration. Provided information on the EM HiEd Project and website
and promised to provide a CD ROM of EMI training courses as well as our
collection of collegiate proposals to develop emergency management
programs.

**(11) Palm Beach Community College, FL:**

July 21, 2003 \-- Talked with Val Williams, Director of Fire Science at
PBCC who had contacted the HiEd Project for information during my
absence. Learned that he is preparing to go before the PBCC curriculum
committee in the near future with a proposal to develop an emergency
management program \-- starting with expanding existing fire service
offerings to include emergency management electives. Barbara Johnson
provided information and materials to assist in this process. For
additional information, Val Williams can be reached at
Williabv@pbcc.edu.

**(12) Social Vulnerability Approach to Disaster \-- Upper Division
College Course:**

July 24, 2003 \-- Was informed by the EMI Webmaster that this course is
now available for downloading from the EM HiEd Project website \--
Academic Emergency Management and Related Courses section, Completed
Courses subsection
(http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/completeCourses.asp). This course
has been developed over the past two-plus years by a collegiate team led
by Dr. Elaine Enarson of Metropolitan State University, Denver. The
other team members were, in alphabetical order: Dr. Cheryl Childers,
Washburn University; Dr. Betty Hearn Morrow, Florida International
University; Dr. Deborah Thomas, University of Colorado at Denver; and
Dr. Ben Wisner, Oberlin College. Over 1000 pages of material \-- the
largest EM HiEd Project course thus far. From the course goal statement:

> This course introduces students to an approach to understanding
> hazards and disasters grounded in social vulnerability analysis. Using
> multi-disciplinary approach, we will examine historical, geographical,
> social, and cultural factors and conditions that put people
> differentially at risk before, during, and after disasters. In
> particular, the course will focus on global, national, regional, and
> local patterns of development. Drawing on current theory and research,
> field studies, class activities, and life experiences, students will
> explore how vulnerable social groups are affected by and cope with
> hazardous conditions and events, and strategies for community-based
> mitigation engaging those most at risk.\"

This is the 13th EM HiEd Project course development project to be
completed and uploaded to the web for free distribution.

**(13) University of Connecticut:**

July 21, 2003 \-- Was advised that Tom Gavaghan, Training Manager,
Connecticut Office of Emergency Management, called to note that he is
working with UC faculty in their initial stage of an investigation into
the development of an emergency management program.