Campus Emergency Operations Plan
During emergency situations, such as the one precipitated by the global pandemic, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) utilizes a Campus Emergency Operations Plan (CEOP), which is a crisis management strategy that Illinois colleges are state-mandated to follow. The CEOP outlines actions and response procedures required for situations in which normal operations are impacted, providing the management structure, key responsibilities, assignments, and procedures to follow during such emergencies.
The CEOP guides our decision-making through the formation of different working groups to address complex problems. These working groups are shaped by the current needs of the institution in the phases outlined below:
- The first phase of the plan focused on moving to a remote learning environment and closing the campus. The working groups consist of 92 members of our faculty and staff, with significant faculty and academic representation among the Remote Learning Group, Academic Concerns, and Remote Events Group. These three groups will remain unchanged and will play a vital role as we transition to the next phase of the plan.
- The second phase is focused on summer operations, which will help provide a roadmap and test run for our fall semester. The working groups, composed of faculty and staff, will help prepare for a return to campus, focusing on areas that include academics and instructional support spaces, campus housing and food service, and facilities operations. Additionally, the Safety Group will play a critical role in preparing us for our fall operations, by determining strategies to mitigate the risk of the pandemic, overseeing campus sanitation, leading training to ensure a healthy campus, and communicating efforts around campus safety. This group is made up of members of our faculty, staff, and Central Administration staff.
A latter phase of the CEOP will focus on operations over the fall semester. The working groups for this phase of planning are not yet finalized, but as our summer reentry brings our needs for fall into better focus, we will continue to work with Interim Dean of Faculty Jefferson Pinder to identify faculty to serve on any new working groups.
The president’s cabinet and faculty and staff serving on CEOP working groups—including safety, facilities operations, instructional support spaces, employee considerations, and policy—are currently reviewing an initial draft of our campus’s safety plan. In early June, all faculty and staff will be invited to review the in-process draft of the plan, attend a meeting where we will present the plan, and participate in a week-long period for community feedback. Shortly after incorporating feedback, the final iteration of the safety plan will be distributed along with resources so that all members of the campus community can prepare for their return, know what to expect when they do so, and learn what resources are available to help them prepare.
Read Governor Pritzker's plan Restore Illinois: A Public Health Approach To Safely Reopen Our State.
