The threat was rising fast, this was not the Spring Break everyone had planned. A decision had to be made quickly. How was Olivet Nazarene University going to respond?
Generating the EOC
This response fell to the emergency management team, directed by systems librarian Kyle Olney. This team was created to handle any and all emergencies that might arise at Olivet Nazarene University. However, this emergency could not have been foreseen.
Out of the emergency management team, Olney implemented a task force called the emergency operations center (EOC). The EOC included members such as vice president for student development Woody Webb, dean of academic operations Jonathan Pickering, dean of the school of graduate and continuing studies Jeremy Van Kley, among others.
‘”We have been preparing for an EOC activation for the last five years but this is the first time it has been used to manage a real incident” Olney said. The EOC’s job was to mitigate the impact COVID-19 had on the final weeks of the semester.
“When Things get back to normal and the campus opens back up and we resume business as usual, it won’t be business as usual it will be business better than usual. I think we will be better for it because of this, and I am encouraged by that.”
Jeremy van kley
Carrying Out Decisions
The EOC spent the week of spring break together creating a feasible objective for how the semester would play out. Originally the decision was to have students return to campus and only transition classes with 60 or more people to an online format and allow smaller classes to meet as scheduled. An email was sent out to the student body by the executive vice president and chief financial officer David Pickering informing students of the decision.
Unfortunately, the day after this announcement as Olivet’s leaders continued to monitor updates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) they made the final decision to transition all further University activities to an online format. Because of the quick turnaround adjustments had to be made on a moments notice.
“Once decisions were made, it was up to the EOC Team to carry out the policies,” Olney said. “So on that first afternoon when it was initially announced that classes were resuming on-ground after Spring Break, the EOC had a full list of planning and logistical objectives we were working on for that scenario. When the decision was adjusted the next day we began working through a new set of plans and logistics.”
Implementing an Online Program
Because most of Olivet’s courses were meant to be taught on ground, many professors were not prepared to completely reinvent their courses in an online structure. After the announcement the EOC decided to extend spring break by a week to allow for faculty and staff to learn how to teach their courses online.
The chair of the department of communication, Jay Martinson, was instrumental in this process.
“My role was to lead the faculty in the online conversion process through creating a set of standards and expectations and then creating a ‘crash course’ training experience for all faculty. This was a Canvas course in which all faculty were enrolled and had to complete during the week following Spring Break” Martinson said.
At This Point in Time
The EOC is continuing to meet to monitor and manage the University’s response to this pandemic. Olivet was not the only university to take drastic steps. Many universities have instituted their own version of the EOC and have taken steps to move their curriculum online. For more information about what an EOC is read the article EOC. What They Are. What They Do by Andrew McBurnie and to hear more from Kyle Olney about Olivet’s reaction to COVID19 and the steps they have taken as they persevere through uncharted territory listen to Life At Olivet’s TigerTalk Podcast Episode One: Another New Beginning.
