RISK ASSESSMENT AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AT AUC. February 2011

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1 RISK ASSESSMENT AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AT AUC February 2011 In light of the events in Egypt since January 25 th, we have received a number of inquiries about our risk assessment and emergency management policies and procedures at AUC. At the height of developing events, we did not feel that it was prudent to take time to outline what is an elaborate and detailed process; now, as the situation is somewhat clearer and daily life somewhat more predictable, we are happy to share both our standard operating procedures and how we addressed this particular emergency. STANDARD POLICIES AND PROCEDURES AUC has a standing Emergency Management Team (EMT); it is composed of the President, the Provost, Vice Presidents for Administration, Student Affairs, Finance, Institutional Advancement, and New York Office, the University Counselor, the directors of Communications, Security, Environmental Health and Safety, Medical Services, Facilities and Operations, and Housing, as well as the University Warden (the AUC contact with the US Embassy) and the Chief Technology Officer. It is chaired by the Vice President for Administration, and meets monthly as a matter of course to review the risk environment and assess related University policies and procedures. Through the Office of the University Counselor, the university administration consults daily with a variety of government authorities about safety, security and regulatory issues that affect University operations. Over the course of the last several years, and with the move to the New Cairo campus, the EMT has reviewed and strengthened campus security, including training of security personnel to operate on a large 24-7 residential campus, as well as facilities in congested urban environments; developed and installed modern fire safety systems in both the New Cairo campus and the Tahrir Square campus; reviewed and updated evacuation plans for the Tahrir Square and Zamalek facilities; instituted remote servers and back-up computing and storage devices in the event of business interruptions; and implemented a variety of web and mobile phone-based protocols for emergency contacts of key personnel and the community at large. The University s emergency evacuation and business continuity plans (which are not public documents for obvious reasons) are reviewed regularly and scheduled to be updated this year. 1

2 AUC RESPONSE TO THE EVENTS FOLLOWING JANUARY 25TH The EMT is convened as often as necessary and after the protests of Tuesday, January 25, it met on both Wednesday and Thursday of that week to review the situation and plan for what promised to be major protests that weekend. We carefully reviewed our communications protocols, including how we would access the Internet in the event that Google, on which our system depends, was blocked. We did not anticipate the unprecedented shut-down of the entire Internet nor the blockage of mobile phone service, but as a back-up we decided to meet at the President s residence on Saturday, January 29, in any event. By the time of that meeting, the Internet and mobile phone service had been out for about 36 hours. We were briefed by the Director of Security about damage done by protestors and police who broke into the Tahrir Square campus on Friday night, and were assured that the campus had been secured by our own security personnel within about three or four hours. During that time, and throughout the weekend, our switchboard operators had been working overtime to provide landline numbers and telephone connections outside Egypt, and we were in contact with the New York Office. At the EMT meeting we also supplemented our contact information with our landlines, and agreed to meet the following day. The EMT would meet daily at the President s residence for the rest of the week. On Sunday morning, January 30, the US Ambassador notified the President of AUC that the US would be announcing authorized voluntary departures later that afternoon. The procedures for access to the flights changed several times, and the University Warden was tasked with monitoring the ever-changing Embassy policies and procedures. In fact, the flights would start the next day, and any US passport holder was to be permitted onto the flights; by that time AUC had arranged for bus transportation to the airport, subject to the limited time buses and drivers could be on the road during a curfew that, at its most severe, extended from 3 PM until 8 AM. The planned inauguration of the new University president on February 7 was cancelled, as was the associated meeting of the Board of Trustees, scheduled from February 6-11, and all public events were postponed until further notice. Over the weekend and through the early days of the week, the general security situation in the country was quite poor, as the police had withdrawn from most of their posts, police stations burned and prisoners released from jail (an apparent and partially successful attempt to create fear in the general population). Some members of the EMT attended the meetings by telephone. On Monday, January 31, the Chief Technology Officer revealed that a work-around had been developed for Internet access for several of the most senior members of the University (see the report of this impressive technological achievement in in the six hours that it was operational, contact was made with the New York Office, and the University faculty and staff phone lists were retrieved from the on-line files (the campus offices where hard 2

3 copies were kept having been inaccessible). The New York Office had already been in regular touch with families and schools of student abroad students and this was now more closely coordinated with Cairo; the President also began daily phone calls with the Chair of the Board of Trustees, who was in New York. The EMT was now in regular contact with all the resident advisors in the dormitories, the deans and department chairs, and other administrators. By Tuesday, February 1, the US Department of State ordered the departure of all non-emergency US government personnel and family members from Egypt. At the same time, however, the Egyptian government began relaxing the curfew, which now extended from 4 PM to 8 AM, and the President and Vice President for Administration began touring University facilities throughout Cairo, making daily visits to the faculty housing units in Maadi and the student residence in Zamalek, visiting the New Cairo campus and faculty housing in Rehab several times and, on Thursday, the Tahrir Square campus itself. Throughout the week as well, and particularly after pro-regime forces provoked violent clashes in Tahrir Square mid-week, additional security officers were deployed to faculty and student residences and those faculty and students who requested it were transferred to apartments and rooms in the Zamalek dormitory. Many American students were required by their home institutions to withdraw from AUC and return to the US because of the US travel advisory; of the 486 US students at AUC at the beginning of the spring semester, 260 withdrew altogether. An additional group left Egypt for Europe temporarily and, when classes began, they returned to Cairo. Throughout the week, faculty and students used AUC transportation to the airport to take the flights arranged by the US (the last US charters left Cairo on February 5 due to lack of demand) or commercial flights when they became available (the airport was closed to commercial traffic for about 36 hours early in the week). About 80 faculty and staff left the country; all but half a dozen or so were back by the beginning of classes on February 13 th, and all but 2 were due to be back by February 20 th. By Wednesday, February 2, the Vice President for Finance had secured more than LE100,000 to make cash advances available to those whose January pay had been delayed by the closure of the banking system. Cash advances were disbursed in Zamalek, Maadi, New Cairo and Rehab for several days; students were also provided cash loans. On Thursday, February 3, students housed in New Cairo were transferred to the Zamalek Dormitory so as to provide more concentrated security, food and other services for students. By Friday, February 4, Internet service was restored. Although the general security situation in the country remained unstable, the demonstrations remained peaceful and, while many faculty and students reported hearing gunfire at night, the appearance of the army on the streets including tanks throughout most of the residential areas where AUC affiliates live began to restore security. 3

4 Throughout the entire period, and as usual, we were in regular contact with Egyptian authorities, confirming information about the fast-developing situation and attempting to address the very numerous and often inaccurate rumors that circulate in times like these. On Sunday, February 6, the EMT met on the New Cairo campus with the Senior Administrative Group, which includes all the school deans, as well as the administrators responsible for student life, international programs, human resources, faculty services, events, university transportation, the downtown campus and the like. The entire group is about 40 people, and it met daily (except on Friday) from February 6 to February 14. Monday, February 7, saw the University run buses on all but two of its 17 routes (one route to Heliopolis and the bus to the Tahrir Square campus were suspended), and by Tuesday, administrative staff on the New Cairo campus were encouraged to begin to come to work. The President began sending daily messages to the AUC community alerting them to the plans to reopen for undergraduate classes only on February 13 if the safety and security of the faculty, staff and students could be assured. We received final authorization from the government on Wednesday the 9 to open on February 13; the Provost s Council had determined that a modified class schedule would permit the buses to run a full complement of routes (except the Tahrir Square bus) while complying with the curfew. Students were returned to the New Cairo campus dormitories on Thursday 10th. The final decision to begin classes was not made until Saturday afternoon, February 12, after consultations by the President with the University Counselor and several other members of the EMT who confirmed that the security situation would permit the start of classes during the hours allowed by the curfew, which was at that time from 12 midnight to 6 AM. Classes began without incident on Sunday, February 13, as scheduled. Throughout that week, planning proceeded both for reopening the Tahrir Square campus and for starting graduate programs on February 20 and for all continuing education programs to resume on February 27. Evening graduate class schedules were adjusted to reflect the necessity to have all bus drivers home by midnight, when the curfew began. All bus routes were to be in operation on February 20, including the Tahrir Square bus. Limited numbers of public events were expected to be hosted during the week of February 27, on both the New Cairo and Tahrir Square campuses. The SAG/EMT group will continue to meet twice a week through the end of February, when the full resumption of operations should be completed, and more often as needed. 4

5 LESSONS LEARNED AND PLANS FOR THE FUTURE The unprecedented shutdown of the Internet and mobile phone service in the country is unlikely to happen again. Nonetheless, we are developing a list of landlines, an updated phone tree, and updated lists of faculty by residential area. We will be requiring all students to supply updated contact information at each registration and will link updating faculty and staff information to annual salary reports each fiscal year. We will supply hard copies of the updated contact lists to the EMT members each semester and will do regular testing of our communications mechanisms and protocols. Although our security staff did an excellent job, we plan to develop new protocols for quick redeployment of security staff across the various AUC facilities and from fixed positions to transportation vehicles, such as buses. We will be reviewing access to and use of our fleet of cars and buses and, of course, we will be continually updating our access to various communications technologies, developing redundancies where practicable. We continue to be in daily contact with the authorities of Egypt, and consult with them both about the safety and security situation in and around our various residential and educational facilities as well as their policies concerning school closings and the like. 5