2008 Woodie Awards
New Sacred Heart employee has task of keeping campus safe
Courtney Perlee
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: News
If there were a campus wide emergency at Sacred Heart University would you know what to do?
It's Paul Healy's job to make sure you do. On Feb. 11, Healy stepped into the position of executive director for emergency management at the university. A title specially created to ensure the university's readiness to handle and respond to a major emergency, it unifies the Public Safety and Information Technology departments with local police departments and first response teams.
"Paul Healy is an intelligent man with a mission that he plans to accomplish," said Addlie Dennis-Manson, manager of Public Safety. "I think we have a bright future ahead with him heading our team."
Previously, the Department of Public Safety operated on its own. Healy's new position concentrates on creating a comprehensive plan which insures that everyone on campus knows what to expect and how to respond in the case of an emergency.
"The day to day business [at Sacred Heart] is education," said Healy. "We want to create a transparent process to access attributes of the university; the technology required to create a safe campus is complicated."
Since coming to Sacred Heart, Healy has made an effort to ensure that all students and faculty have registered with the university's emergency notification system. In the case of an emergency, the system allows for Public Safety to send text messages to all registered users, broadcast a televised message on every channel on campus, address all campus locations through the fire alarms, and display an emergency Web site on the Sacred Heart homepage with real-time updates and instructions.
Each of these components is used daily by students and faculty, ensuring that in a live emergency, each person would be informed of the situation and how to respond.
According to Healy, registration for the notification system is simple: students and faculty can sign onto Web Advisor, and click on the link reading "Emergency Notification Info." However, many students still have not completed the registration, and Healy emphasized the importance of doing so.
It's Paul Healy's job to make sure you do. On Feb. 11, Healy stepped into the position of executive director for emergency management at the university. A title specially created to ensure the university's readiness to handle and respond to a major emergency, it unifies the Public Safety and Information Technology departments with local police departments and first response teams.
"Paul Healy is an intelligent man with a mission that he plans to accomplish," said Addlie Dennis-Manson, manager of Public Safety. "I think we have a bright future ahead with him heading our team."
Previously, the Department of Public Safety operated on its own. Healy's new position concentrates on creating a comprehensive plan which insures that everyone on campus knows what to expect and how to respond in the case of an emergency.
"The day to day business [at Sacred Heart] is education," said Healy. "We want to create a transparent process to access attributes of the university; the technology required to create a safe campus is complicated."
Since coming to Sacred Heart, Healy has made an effort to ensure that all students and faculty have registered with the university's emergency notification system. In the case of an emergency, the system allows for Public Safety to send text messages to all registered users, broadcast a televised message on every channel on campus, address all campus locations through the fire alarms, and display an emergency Web site on the Sacred Heart homepage with real-time updates and instructions.
Each of these components is used daily by students and faculty, ensuring that in a live emergency, each person would be informed of the situation and how to respond.
According to Healy, registration for the notification system is simple: students and faculty can sign onto Web Advisor, and click on the link reading "Emergency Notification Info." However, many students still have not completed the registration, and Healy emphasized the importance of doing so.
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