SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND ADMINISTRATION MPA PROGRAM IN EMERGENCY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT Course Syllabus- Fall 2013 COURSE INFORMATION: Instructor: Prof. Johnny W. Velez, MEMS, MEP Course Name: Identification of Organizational Disaster Needs/ Field Experience Course Number: MPA 522 PCA/FLD MEW1 Office Hours: by appointment only Phone number: (212) 343-2200x 2205 Email: Contact: jvelez@mcny.edu COURSE DESCRIPTION: This Constructive Action course is designed to provide students with an overview of business continuity/emergency operations planning for public, non-profit, and private organizations. Students will review the "tool belt" of current day Emergency Management, the Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Project, and ARC/GIS. Students may apply the Disaster Recovery Institute's first 5 Professional Practices of Business Continuity to create a Business Continuity Plan for a local business. Students will also complete the FEMA Emergency Management Professional Development Series. The process is designed to be collaborative, to encourage teamwork, and to give students a real-world experience in developing a plan. In later semesters, students will implement and assess the plan. PREREQUISITES: MPA 511 SYS/512 SYS SUGGESTED TEXT: The Community Planning Handbook.2000.reprinted 2006.Nick Wates. Earthscan ISBN: 1-85383-654-0. Other readings to be distributed. COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the end of this course, the student will be able to: To serve as an emergency management consultant/consulting group for a client Create/review/update an Hazard Vulnerability Analysis for an emergency management plan and make recommendations based on best practices in the field Provide an overview of emergency management planning for communities (public, notfor-profit, private organizations and vulnerable populations Assess and prepare the plan in later semesters by adding knowledge of comprehensive emergency management Utilize critical thinking about the current state of emergency management through exposure to the real issues the client faces and active participation with stakeholders
COURSE APPROACH This course will provide the foundation of emergency management principles and key concepts. Students will review core areas of emergency management such as mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. A careful analysis and lively discussion of the readings as well as participation in classroom exercises designed to identify and diagnose gaps and challenges enables participants to grow proficient in the many concepts that define the Emergency Management discipline s standards for recovery from hazards, as well as in the prevention, preparedness and response components that form that bulk of the discipline s operational parameters. Given the graduate level of the course, students should expect to be challenged in order to broaden their understanding of the course materials and topics through dialogue and interaction with the instructor and other students. It is vitally important for students to ponder the readings before each class session, highlight those points, raise questions in class and respond to those questions asked in order to contribute to the class discussion. To ensure this, students should write down questions or comments that will generate a fruitful debate particularly as they apply to contemporary emergency and disaster management issues related to disaster recovery operations. Field Assignments will take place in the form of the following: Site visits, research assignments, and group discussion assignment with reports due at the end of class (see syllabus). On group and research I will be on site to render assistance and to guide. Please support your thoughts and statements with facts because they will be applied to the final product. You need to apply critical thinking to all issues. Erroneous assessments will lead to an embarrassing moment for you and your colleagues. In the real world one s reputation for accuracy can lead to fortune or failure. This syllabus may change at the instructor s discretion to ensure that the needs of the students and course requirements are met, and to allow the course to remain relevant and applicable to within a rapidly-evolving environment. COURSE SUPPORT During the course of the semester, you can arrange to meet with me in if you feel you need additional guidance or support. The Academic Learning Center is also available to you for academic help. I also strongly encourage you to use the available services in the library. I suggest that you use it as much as possible if you have any questions about writing format, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Excel or any other software issue. ASSESSMENT STRATEGY: Grading for the course will be based on a scale (as opposed to a curve). Due dates for examinations and assignments are noted in the course schedule section of this syllabus. 2
Course Grading Policy Course Grading Policy Grades and Evaluation: The final course grade for MPA 522 PCA/FLD is determined in the following manner: Attendance 20% Assigned paper/reports 10% HVA Individual Report 20%** 5 page Talking Paper Slide show 5-7 Final Report Individual 20%** 5 page Talking Paper Slide show 5-7 Final Report group 30% ** Integrate needs wants & Solution Group paper (TBD) Grading Policy Total 100% A 95-100 A- 91-94 B+ 88-90 B 85-87 B- 81-84 C+ 78-80 C 75-77 F <75 If your final course grade is below a 75, you will get an F for the course. There are no letter grades below a C other than a F. Submission of Assignments All written assignments are to be submitted electronically via email with attachments to jvelez@mcny.edu, unless otherwise indicated. Be sure to put your name at the top of each assignment. Late assignments are not accepted. There is no extra credit assignment for this course. The weekly assignment will be up to three pages due weekly on the topic discussed. Report outs on group discussion with a scribe in an After Action format to be provided 3
See guidelines for email correspondence below. Communication Outside of the Classroom Email Correspondence The subject line of your email should be formatted thusly: For assignments: [Your name]: MPA522 PCA/FLD [the name of the assignment as it appears in the course schedule section of this syllabus]. Please be advised, Failure to comply with formatting guidelines will result in loss of points on assignments For all other matters: [Your name]: MPA522PCA/FLD [some reference to purpose of the email, e.g. Clarification of Assignment 1 ]. Please allow 24-48 hours for a response before emailing a second time. Email is a formal means of communication in the context of school or work; please sign every message at the bottom, use polite language, capital letters, punctuation, greetings and salutations. Please avoid abbreviations and slang. 1. Remember that the absence of face-to-face communication, it's easy to misunderstand what is being said. Pay close attention to the tone of your email. Certain words can convey aggression or can be otherwise offensive; 2. Carefully review and read materials that you receive electronically to ensure that you fully understand the message; 3. Be sure to carefully re-read and understand what you will be sending in order to ensure that you are not misunderstood by anyone; 4. Avoid cluttering your messages with excessive emphasis (stars, arrows, exclamations); 5. If you are responding to a message, either include the relevant part of the original message in your message, or make sure refer to the original's contents so as to avoid confusion; 6. Be specific and clear, especially when asking questions; 7. If your messages can be typed in UPPER and lower case, please use the two appropriately instead of all UPPERCASE characters. This gives the appearance of shouting and makes the message less readable; 8. Follow the same standards of politeness as you do in any other aspect of your life. Telephone Communication Requests/appointments for phone conferences should be made via email. 4
Standards of Academic Conduct and Student Integrity The College expects academic honesty from students and instructors. Students have the obligation both to themselves and to the College to make the appropriate College representative aware of instances of academic deceit or dishonesty. Generally, this entails making the situation known to the instructor, and if needed, to the Dean of the student s school. Likewise, faculty members are responsible for enforcing the stated academic standards of the College. Instances of violating academic standards might include, but are not necessarily limited to, the situations outlined below: Cheating Receiving or providing unapproved help in any academic task, test or treatise. Cheating includes the attempt to use or the actual use of any unauthorized information, educational material, or learning aid in a test or assignment. Cheating includes multiple submission of any academic exercise more than once for credit without prior authorization and approval of the instructor. Plagiarism Presenting someone else s work as though it is your own. In an academic community the use of words, ideas, or discoveries of another person without explicit, formal acknowledgement constitutes an act of theft or plagiarism. In order to avoid the charge of plagiarism, students must engage in standard academic practices such as putting quotation marks around words that are not their own, employing the appropriate documentation or citation, and including a formal acknowledgement of the source in the proper format. Each school of MCNY follows a style manual prescribed in your Purpose Handbook. Students are responsible for following that style. 5 Fabrication Inventing or falsifying any data, information, or records. Obstruction Impeding the ability of another student to perform assigned work. Collusion Assisting any of the above situations or performing work that another student presents as his or her own. Attendance Policy Attendance is mandatory. Unexcused absences that are in excess of three (3) will automatically result in a full reduction of your final grade. Excessive lateness will not be tolerated during the semester since it may affect other students in the learning process. Students are expected to be on time and well prepared for the assigned class discussion each day of class. Academic Adjustment for Students with Disabilities MCNY is committed to complying by making reasonable accommodations in its academic programs, thus insuring maximum participation by all students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations and academic assistance are provided to MCNY students with disabilities registered with the Office of Student Services. Students with disabilities must complete a Request for Academic Adjustment Application Form available from the Student Services Office. Documentation of disability from a qualified medical or other licensed practitioner is required at this time. Specific guidelines for disability documentation are available from the
Student Services Office. Accommodations are individually determined according to documented need. Some more typical accommodations include: Test accommodations. This may include lengthening the time required to take an exam or providing a private room for testing Tutorial services. A specific plan is developed for each student Referrals, where appropriate and possible Net - Etiquette Guidelines MCNY has specified the following guidelines for participation in the Threaded Discussion Area and Chatrooms. Communication Competency You convey a certain image of yourself every time you express yourself-whether it's through the written or spoken word. As such, successful professionals (students, managers, employees) must have effective written and oral communication skills. Therefore, communication errors (such as improper grammar, improper sentence and paragraph structure, misspelling and incorrect punctuation) are unacceptable in coursework throughout the semester. Faculty members also consider communication competency when evaluating student performance in addition to coursework. 6
CLASS DATES AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE: WEEK TOPIC ASSIGNMENT DUE 1 Welcome, overview and introductions Assignment due 9/14 The paper on 3 Challenges/ 3 Well Done. 2 Knowledge Mining/Community Planning 3 Project Mgmt with MS Hazards and Vulnerability Analysis CD 3 4 ARC/GIS Local Business and Health Facilities 5 6 7 Funding- Government and Private initiatives Client Meeting and Site Walkthrough Risk Communication Education for Groups. Individuals.& Vulnerable 8 Individual Presentations on Hazards/Best Practice Assignment due 9/21 Paper on Institutions/population in CD3. Can they help in an emergency? Assignment due 9/28- Hazards and how is the community vulnerable Assignment due10/05 -Vulnerabilities and solutions Assignment due 10/12 -What is available, who eligible, and how to apply. Include a properly filled out sample for CB 3 Assignment due 10/19-Your personal assessment of the client and their wants and needs based on what you learned in the last 5 weeks. Assignment due 10/26- Create an outline for a Risk Communication Plan include message and reason for the message for a population at risk in CD3 Assignment due 11/01-5 pg paper with PowerPoint 5-7 on a hazard assigned, minimum 6 references. 9 Group Discussion on Natural SW Hazard Report out due Close of Field Class on 11/03 10 Group Discussion on Technological Hazard 11 Group Discussion on Manmade Hazard 13 Group Discussion on Natural Earthquake and Tsunami Report out due Close of Field Class on 11/16 Report out due Close of Field Class on 11/23 Report out due Close of Field Class on 11/30 14 Group Discussion and Consensus FINAL Report out due Close of Field Class on 12/07 15 FINAL HVA Presentation and Recommendation Group Report due on 12/14 7