Policy

⇓ Procedures ⇓

Procedures: Article V.41 Emergency Response

General

Administrative Procedures may be changed and adjusted as necessary to pursue best practices in the safe delivery of instruction and services to students and a safe environment for employees and the community in the event of an emergency and throughout recovery from an emergency. 

Quick Reference Guide

A Quick Reference Guide to Campus Safety and Emergency Response, developed by the Department of Public Safety, is available to all employees to provide important instructions for emergency situations. Employees are responsible for referring to and following the contents of the Quick Reference Guide. 

COVID-19 Pandemic

Specifically related to the gradual return to normal operations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following safety measures are required for employees, students, and members of the community who occupy property which is owned, leased, or operated by St. Charles Community College: 

• All persons who enter buildings must wear a mask or face covering unless unable to do so because of health condition, age, or disability. Masks must be worn properly to cover nose and mouth. Mask type and materials must comply with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. 
• Persons who enter buildings may be required to complete a questionnaire and submit to a temperature check and will be turned away if temperature is elevated.
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for social distancing must be followed. CDC Mask Type Guidelines

Communicable Diseases and Blood Borne Pathogens

Chronic Communicable Diseases

To provide a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff, students with chronic communicable diseases may attend the College when, through reasonable accommodation, the risk of transmission of the disease and/or the risk of further injury to the student is sufficiently remote in such a setting so as to be outweighed by the detrimental effects resulting from the student's exclusion from the College. 

Education, Practice, and Established Standards

Due to the serious consequences of exposure to diseases carried by blood and other bodily fluids (primarily AIDS and Hepatitis B), the College adheres to accepted standards for education, training, prevention, and follow-up related to potential exposures. Although these diseases have potentially fatal effects, the chance of transmission can be greatly reduced by education, careful practice, and following established standards. 

Employee Exposure: Protection and Reporting

Each department, where there is the possibility of occupational exposure, will inform its employees of potential risk factors, preventive measures, and steps to take if an exposure occurs. These departments are those in which employees are likely to assist with injuries or wounds or to clean up and dispose of results of either bleeding wounds from accidents, cuts, falls, nosebleeds, etc., or from other body fluids. 

All employees who assist an ill or bleeding injured person or who assist with disposal of spills containing blood or other infectious material will follow standard procedures and wear appropriate protective barriers. 

Employees who experience an unprotected exposure to blood or body fluids will follow the procedure of the Exposure Control Plan. All such exposures will be reported to the appropriate supervisor and administrator, and documentation will adhere to standards established in the Exposure Control Plan. 

Confidentiality

The College, through its employees, will take all appropriate steps to provide protection from risk while recognizing individual rights, voluntary testing, and confidentiality. 

Emergency Alert Text-Messaging System

The text-messaging Emergency Alert System is used to make announcements in the event of emergencies, warnings, weather-related closings, or campus shut downs. Employees are encouraged to enroll in the Emergency Alert System in order to be notified as soon as possible when an emergency, warning, weather-related closing, or campus shut down occurs. Enrollment and other information can accessed with the following link: Emergency Alert System. 

Phone System Emergency

In the event of an emergency in which the College phone system is inoperative, one analog telephone is located in each campus building. The analog telephones can be used for local calls only and may be reached using the following phone numbers:

Content Owner: Administrative Services
Issued: 08/1993
Revised: 06/2001, 02/2008, 10/2008, 06/2020