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Purpose and Context
Incidents
in Ascending Order of Severity >>
The incidents discussed here will be responded to considering their scale,
severity, the degree of disruption they impose, and their breadth of influence
on our safety and operations. These attributes will also inform decisions
regarding the university status and Alert Levels we set. They are categorized
to facilitate our preparation and response as indicated below:
- Incident: An unanticipated
event of any scale that affects the university and demands action by
members of the administration. (This term can be used to describe events
across the spectrum of severity).
- Civil Disturbance:
A purposeful act, by an individual or group – whether from within
or without the GW community – that calls attention to itself in
such a manner that it distracts from the intended schedule or focus
of events at the university. Demonstrations can fall into this category
but all demonstrations are not civil disturbances.
- Emergency: An
unanticipated event that places life, property, or vital interests at
risk and demands immediate response, deliberate recovery efforts, or
use of alternatives resources or methods.
- Crisis: A critical
turning point. An unstable condition in which an abrupt or decisive
change is pending. The potential outcomes include adverse consequences.
A crisis is an event that challenges our values and priorities or threatens
the vital interests and strategic goals of the university and disrupts
critical functions.
- Disaster: An event
involving significant destruction and distress that adversely affects
our priorities, strategic goals, and vital interests and disrupts business
continuity. The scale of a disaster requires an extraordinary response
from within and outside the university.
- Catastrophe: An
event on the scale of a disaster that includes:
• Serious injury or death of a member of the GW community, or
• Permanent damage to university property or vital interests, or
• Destruction or disruption on such a scale that it permanently
denies the attainment of at least one strategic goal, or
• Irreparable damage to any university building(s), or
• A disruption of operational continuity that makes completion
of the current semester prior to the scheduled start of the next academic
session (fall, spring or summer) impossible, or
• Economic costs requiring more than three years to recover, or
• A situation where demand for emergency services exceeds their
capacity to the degree that second order effects significantly increase
the scale and perception of the consequences.
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