The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 defines major management challenges as programs or management functions that are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, and where a failure to perform well could seriously affect the ability of the U.S. Department of Education (Department) to achieve its mission or…

Does geography have an American constituency? Setbacks for the discipline at all levels of education over the past 65 years would suggest that geography is universally unpopular in the United States, but is that really true? The American Geographical Society (AGS) polled adult US residents on their understanding of the discipline itself and…

Disasters happen worldwide, and it is necessary to engage emergency management agencies, health and social services, and community-based organizations in collaborative management activities to enhance community resilience. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been widely accepted in public health research as an approach to develop…

When a catastrophe strikes a community, the response of those affected may vary. But whether it is a hurricane, deadly violence, or killer tornados, the schools have to push forward and transform a traumatic situation into an opportunity for improvements. Schools and universities must move forward to make sure students continue to learn and grow.…

Despite a growing body of literature on campus crisis management and the breadth of research on organizational change, little is known about organizational changes prompted by campus crisis. The purpose of this study is to examine the changes made to the operational profiles of Gulf Coast institutions during the process of recovering from major…

Marguerite Shaffer, director of American Studies at Miami University, is one of a surprisingly large number of faculty members who are at odds with an academic culture that isn't hospitable to their efforts to combine a public life with a scholarly career. She is concerned about what is happening in her field and about the world her two children…

Only a few of Haiti's colleges have resumed classes since the earthquake effectively shut down higher education in the impoverished country. Most of the country's 159 colleges are concentrated in the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince. Those that have reopened are housed in temporary quarters. The destruction of Haitian higher education was so…

The purpose of the study was to examine hurricane emergency preparedness planning at institutions of higher learning of the Gulf South region following Hurricane Katrina. The problem addressed the impact of Hurricane Katrina on decision-making and policy planning processes. The focus was on individuals that administer the hurricane emergency…

Public transportation, with its open access, creates an opportunity for masses of people to be hurt while using transit services during human-made or natural disasters. This dissertation reviews the body of academic and professional literature and recent disaster events to characterize the current state of preparedness for disasters affecting…

The study researched the websites of the 50 state flagship higher education institutions to investigate whether and how online or distance learning were included in the institutions' emergency plans as solutions to emergencies such as H1N1. All 50 institutions had identical directions to students and staff on how to handle the H1N1 flu, but…

Tuesday, 22 February was the second day of the University of Canterbury (UC) in Christchurch, New Zealand 2011 academic year and the author was preparing lectures for Accounting Theory (ACCT311) in his sixth-floor office of the Commerce building when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck. Although no university buildings collapsed, it soon became…

A freak blizzard, a mentally ill and armed student, a record-breaking flood. No matter how idyllic a campus may feel, no matter how cocooned the ivory tower, disaster can strike. If a campus is unprepared, it comes like a sucker punch, potentially turning a crisis into a tragedy of unimagined proportions--and causing reverberations that will be…

As north Georgia continues to experience its worst drought in more than a century, many colleges in the region are struggling with water woes, with some seeking lessons from colleges that have survived droughts before. Climatologists say that the drought may intensify this spring and summer, and that emergency measures are overdue. Now that the…

More than 1,500 students who were driven off their island campus in Galveston, Texas, by Hurricane Ike resumed classes last week 150 miles inland, on the main campus of Texas A&M University at College Station. The students, who are enrolled at Texas A&M's marine-oriented branch campus, in Galveston, were hurriedly moved into spare rooms…

Academic technologists at Lynn University (Florida) learned the hard way just how important a disaster recovery plan can be. Back in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma walloped the region with driving rain and 120 mile-per-hour winds, the storm debilitated Lynn's IT department, causing damage and flooding that thwarted the campus network for nearly two…