About CCMS
Emergency Notification and Response Policy
In the event of an emergency, contact the Police at 911 to initiate the emergency response.
Emergency Response Procedures
The College President (or his/her designee), in coordination with the Springfield Township Police and CCMS staff members, has developed contingency and communication plans in case of an emergency. The Springfield Township Police and the College President receive information from a variety of sources on campus. If the Police or one of these sources confirms that there is an immediate threat to the health or safety of some or all of the members of the campus community, the Springfield Township Police and the College President (or his/her designee) will use some or all of the methods described below to communicate to the campus community, or appropriate segment of the campus community, and/or the public that there is an emergency. The College President (or his/her designee), in consultation with the Police, will determine the content of the message.
The emergency messaging system may be initiated from on-campus and from remote locations. The College will, without delay and taking into account the safety of the community, initiate the emergency messaging system, unless issuing a message will, in the judgment of the Springfield Township Police, or other responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency.
Emergency Notification System—Notification of an Immediate Threat
The College maintains multiple systems for alerting the College community about campus emergencies and will use some or all of those systems, depending on the circumstances. The following may be used:
- CCMS Social Media Pages
- Media
- Telephone Trees
- Text Message via Populi
- College Homepage
Emergency messaging will primarily be used only for those situations that pose an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees on campus or for the closing of an entire campus or cancellation of classes (i.e., severe weather, chemical spills, fires, and crimes). Messages about criminal activity generally will not be sent using these systems unless it is decided there is an imminent threat of danger. In those cases where a crime has been reported and the Police determine that, although there is no immediate threat, the crime represents a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community, a Crime Alert will be issued, as described above. The victim’s name and other personally identifying information will NOT be included in any Emergency Notification or Crime Alert.
The emergency notification system is provided in addition to existing emergency notification procedures and does not replace or eliminate any other emergency notification system (e.g., fire alarms, tornado sirens).
The College will generally provide follow-up information to the community as appropriate via the College’s website portal and/or email messaging.
Additional Communication
In the event of a significant on-campus emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students, faculty, or staff, the College will also post information on its homepage. The College has access to an off-campus back-up server in the event the College’s computing services fail during an emergency.
The Business Manager for the College is charged with notifying the media in the event of an emergency. Updated information will be posted to the College’s website and provided to the media.
Evacuation Procedures
When Evacuation is needed, it is necessary to remove College faculty, staff, students and visitors from the College building.
- Evacuate persons in immediate danger.
- The order to evacuate an area or the facility must come from the College President or his/her representative. The evacuation order will be announced overhead and/or via the email system.
- Evacuation can be immediate, partial (from one area to another area) or total (removal of everyone from the building).
- If an evacuation of the building is necessary, all occupants will gather in the Assembly Area (the Southeast corner of the CCMS parking lot).
Evacuation routes are posted on campus. In the event of a building evacuation, students are required to exit the building and meet at the designated meeting location. The designated meeting location is the Southeast corner of the CCMS parking lot (behind the dumpsters). Students may only leave campus once they have met at the designated meeting location and have been accounted for.
Emergency Drills, Testing and Evacuation Procedures
Evacuation drills are to be coordinated by Springfield Township Police at least annually and may be conducted in the form of a drill, tabletop, functional, or full scale exercise. A description of each exercise, as well as the date and time of the exercise, and information about whether the test was announced or unannounced must be documented by the College. Testing of the Communication Alert Systems occurs annually.
The purpose of evacuation drills is to prepare building occupants for an organized evacuation in case of an emergency. At CCMS, evacuation drills are used as a way to educate and train student and employees on issues specific to the building. During the drill, students and employees ‘practice’ drill procedures and familiarize themselves with the location of exits and the sound of the alarm.
Annual Publication
The College publicizes its emergency response and evacuation procedures to all students and employees, as well as in conjunction with its annual test of the evacuation procedure. Further, general information about the College’s response and evacuation procedures is publicized each year as part of its Campus Safety Report, which is published as part of its compliance with the Clery Act.