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Champlain College Director of Campus Public Safety Richard Long ’98, MS ’05 Takes 21st-Century Safety to Heart

When it comes to responding to an outbreak of pandemic flu, the question is not “If” but “When?”

This sobering message may strike some people as alarmist, especially when juxtaposed with the serene setting of the Champlain College campus—nestled, as it is, in the heart of relatively natural–disaster–free Burlington, Vermont. But the individuals responsible for the safety and security of Champlain College students aren’t taking tranquility for granted. Especially not alumnus Richard Long, Champlain’s director of campus public safety. On the same day that the 21-year veteran of the Burlington Police Department was offered his position at Champlain—April 16, 2007—a gunman killed 33 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University. Long accepted the job and immediately began developing a comprehensive emergency response plan outlining protocols and procedures in the event of disasters and catastrophes including a campus shooter, water contamination, power outage, fire, hazardous chemical spill, and, yes, pandemic flu. Once completed—by summer 2008, Long estimates—the plan will provide what he calls “a 30,000-foot view of campus-wide emergency response plans for everything from day-to-day emergencies to what we would call a Level 5 catastrophic event,” such as a major hurricane, an act of terrorism, or an event requiring state and federal assistance. (Pandemic flu is a Level 4.)

Since Long came on board, the College has made substantial progress in implementing systems to bolster campus safety. For example, all incoming residential students in fall 2007 were required to file emergency evacuation plans with Student Life, detailing how they will leave campus and where they will go if/when such an event as a pandemic flu outbreak occurs. College plans call for a campus shutdown within six hours of human-to-human flu contamination. “In terms of public health, that’s the right thing to do,” notes Champlain College President David Finney. “You don’t want people to congregate. You want them dispersed.”

A second piece of the emergency response plan involves enabling the College to resume operation as soon after an incident as possible—or “business continuity management” in the parlance of preparedness. According to Finney, Champlain’s business continuity systems will leverage Web-based technology like the learning management systems currently used to deliver online courses. Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) functions will allow instructors to conduct classes much as they would in a classroom setting. Based on what he has learned about a pandemic flu outbreak, “We would need to do that for a couple of months,” Finney says.

Day-to-day security at the College has been enhanced through a campus-wide alert system now in place. The system enables Long and other campus officials to contact students, staff, and faculty by cell phone and email if an incident jeopardizes campus safety. When students returned from winter break in January 2008, Long and Assistant Director of Campus Public Safety Tony Calacci ’88 registered all transfer students for the alert system. Long’s team will register all incoming students in the alert system in the fall 2008 semester.

Having served on the front lines of law enforcement in Burlington, Long knows that systems and plans are not substitutes for education and awareness. That’s why he conducted dozens of safety presentations for students last fall, touching on such issues as how to ensure a safe, secure dorm; what to do if encountering a suspicious individual on campus; and how to look after fellow classmates on campus and off. To his surprise, when he broached the subject of a campus shooter, many students appeared to have received prior training. That was not the case among faculty and staff, however, so Long prepared a presentation for them. “We can’t guarantee that everyone will be safe,” he says, “but we can give people information so that they can make themselves safer if and when a crisis ever occurs. We’ll do that each year.”

Giving Long and his team the resources to carry out this critical work is an important part of the College’s emergency preparedness plan. As David Provost, Champlain College vice president of Finance & Administration, notes, Long directs a larger full-time security detail than in recent years—six full-timers in all, covering three shifts, including weekends. “That’s a significant evolution,” Provost says. “It’s not as if Rich needs to go walk the beat … He has been able to take on these big issues.”

And dealing with a pandemic flu outbreak, Long acknowledges, is huge. Still, he’s up for the new challenges on his radar. “People ask me, ‘How is the transition leaving the City of Burlington?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m just as busy as I was before, but this is a good busy. In the old job we were busy because we were running after bad guys. Here things are moving forward, and that’s a good feeling of accomplishment. I’m glad to be working at a place where you don’t get stuck in process, because you hate to be planning for an incident during an incident.”

Finney, who remembers well the aftermath of 9/11 during his tenure at New York University, shares Long’s sense of urgency and is also guardedly optimistic about the College’s preparedness plans. “I think Champlain’s history as being a nimble institution and in getting things done serves us very well here,” he says.

Provost concurs. While he lauds the work that Long has completed—and completed swiftly and intelligently—he prefers to think in terms of “if” versus “when” scenarios. “Hopefully we have the best plans for something that we never have to use,” he says.

—EE