WHO: URI Campus Police, URI Emergency Services, URI Emergency Management Office, South Kingstown Police, Rhode Island State Police, Charlestown Emergency Services, Rhode Island Fire Marshal’s Office, including the state bomb squad, URI Communications & Marketing, Kingston Fire Department and similar agencies that serve Rhode Island College and UMass-Dartmouth.
WHAT: Operation Education Safe Haven, a collaborative effort of URI, RIC, and UMass-Dartmouth, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency to test campuses’ responses to a potential gunmen on each of the campuses. The exercise, which is being coordinated through URI’s Office of Emergency Management and the federal Department of Homeland Security, is also designed to test the ability of the three schools to share information and work together. Rhode Island College President Nancy Carriulo initiated plans for the joint exercise after she attended a workshop in Boston run by URI’s National Institute for Public Safety, Research and Training. About 35 first responders will participate at URI.
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, 8 a.m. to noon.
WHERE: Second floor of 210 Flagg Road, primarily an administrative building on the outer edge of campus, which is not used heavily by students or faculty. Police and other security personnel will be stationed outside 210 Flagg Road to keep those not involved in the exercise away from the building. URI officials are urging those not directly involved with the exercise to keep away from the site. Signs will also be posted to alert people to the exercise.
TO MAKE COVERAGE ARRANGEMENTS: Contact Dave Lavallee, URI Department of Communications & Marketing, 401-874-5862, Jane Fusco, Rhode Island College, RIC Office of News and Public Relations, 401-456-809, jfusco@ric.edu.