UMass Amherst is committed to the safety and protection of its employees, students, operations, research, education and facilities. In support of this commitment, the University has critical operations that must be performed, or rapidly and efficiently resumed in an emergency. Continuity planning is an effort to ensure that essential functions of the University can continue across a wide range of potential emergencies.

Continuity Planning at UMass Amherst is designed to address three types of disruptions:

• Denial of entry / loss of access to a facility (such as damage to the building);
• Service interruption due to a reduced workforce (such as a communicable disease); and
• Service interruption due to equipment or systems failure (such as IT systems failure).

Whatever the emergency or event, UMass' goal is to be "Ready" so that we can continue our teaching, research and public service mission with minimal interruption.

UMass Ready

UMass Ready is a continuity planning tool designed for the UMass Amherst Campus.

Developing Continuity Plans through the use of an UMass Ready:

• Is user – friendly, time-efficient and intuitive
• Uses fill-in-the blank features and drop-down lists
• Is customized for UMass Amherst

How Does This Plan Help Your Department?

• Helps to prioritize actions to take before, during and after events that disrupt a department’s functions
• Assists in a broad range of events, from natural disasters, information technology systems failure to loss of staff
• Reduces liability and helps with decision-making by preventing disruptions to work and providing details for recovery
• Identifies essential personnel, essential functions and processes, upstream and downstream dependencies

 

UMass Ready is designed for departmental continuity planning. Department is loosely defined as any sub-unit of the campus. It might be an entire school, college or division, or a small specialized unit. The tool is appropriate for all types of departments - instructional, research, as well as administrative and other support units.

What are the "Next Steps" for developing your department's UMass Ready Continuity Plan?

Identify a Point of Contact to work on the UMass Ready project for your organization

• Point of Contact will be responsible for identifying departments and their representatives who in turn will need to complete a plan and attend an orientation session

Training Program

• UMass Ready orientation session attended by organization POC and department representatives will provide overview and allow the chosen representatives to start populating the UMass Ready program with their specific department data.
• Guidebook to walk individuals through each of the steps in the UMass Ready process
• Reoccurring meetings/trainings held monthly serve to provide department representatives with further instruction and to answer any questions they may have.

What is the project time commitment for a department's involvement with UMass Ready?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This tool is easy-to-use and requires no advance training. However, before you begin your plan contact the Emergency Management Director who will provide guidance and context.

 

Access UMass Ready by clicking here.

 

 

Download the UMass Ready User Guides
UMass Ready Guide	UMass Guide to Academic Planning