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‘ H e's One of Ours’: A Case Study of a Campus Response to Crisis
Author(s) -
Jenkins Shan,
Goodman Michael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12086
Subject(s) - crisis response , plan (archaeology) , crisis management , terrorism , political science , task (project management) , crisis communication , public relations , operations research , public administration , business , engineering , management , law , history , economics , archaeology
Early on F riday, 19 A pril 2013, officials at the U niversity of M assachusetts D artmouth learned that one of the B oston M arathon bombing suspects was an enrolled student. That morning, the entire campus was transformed into both a crime scene and a potential target for an act of domestic terrorism. This article examines the campus response to this crisis, based on interviews with campus officials and a review of a task force report produced to review the campus response. This case study speaks to three important issues in the crisis management literature. Having a crisis plan helps (1), but testing of these plans is critical for an effective response (2). Furthermore, the plan must allow for real‐time decision making that is both centralized and decentralized (3).