Training and Exercises

Exercises

As Western Carolina University is committed to creating and maintaining a culture of safety, the institution participates in several different forms of exercises to practice responding to actual incidents. Each year, the intuition participates in a minimum of two exercises that cover multiple hazards that could affect Western Carolina University. These types of exercise include:

Scenario-Driven or Discussion-Based Drills

These drills are small in scale, but bring together certain groups of people to discuss specific roles and actions related to prescribed scenarios (i.e., building-specific scenarios and walkthroughs, planning scenarios)

Tabletop Exercises

These exercises involve key personnel discussing simulated scenarios in an informal setting. TTXs can be used to assess plans, policies, and procedures.

Functional Exercises

A functional exercise allows specific personnel to validate plans and readiness by performing their duties in a simulated operational environment. Activities for a functional exercise are scenario driven. Functional exercises are designed to exercise specific team members, procedures and resources (e.g. communications, warning, notifications and equipment set-up).

Full-Scale Exercises

A full-scale exercise is a multi-agency, multi-discipline exercise involving functional and “boots on the ground” response to simulated events and can include agency response, mock victims, and field operations.

Online Training

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A) through its partner, the Emergency Management Institute, provides a variety of online independent study courses that can better prepare an individual and/or organization to respond to an emergency. In addition to the Emergency Management Institute, individuals may participate in local or state emergency management training or exercises. 

The Department of Emergency Services suggests the following courses to be taken by any member of the university community:

• IS 100.c: Introduction to the Incident Command System
• IS 200.c: Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
• IS 363: Introduction to Emergency Management for Higher Education
• IS 700.b: An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
• IS 800.c: An Introduction to the National Response Framework

If you have any questions about additional training or courses, please do not hesitate to contact the Department of Emergency Services at (828) 227-3445.