UHCO INTRANET

One month into Hurricane Season, and about the same into a drought, makes this reminder of the communications process for weather closings particularly timely.

When a hurricane threatens the Houston metropolitan area and/or Gulf Coast region, or other weather hazards (such as severe freezes) impact our communities, the UH System President(s) and/or Chancellor may decide to close one or more of the UHS institutions to ensure the safety of employees and students. To alert employees and students to the closing(s), the following communication processes are implemented:

1. Houston media will be alerted to the weather closing(s)/updates, and will communicate throughout the weather situation. Local network television stations such as Ch. 8 (KUHT), Ch’s. 2, 11, 13 as well as Ch. 26 (Fox) will be notified along with local radio stations. Stations such as KUHF (FM 88.7, KTRH (call 740-AM), 97-Talk (KRTK, FM), KPRC (950 AM) as well as KHMX (FM 96.5), KQQK (106.5 FM, Tejano), KLOL (101.1 FM), KILT (100.3 FM), KIKK (95.7 FM), KRBE (104.5 FM) and KTBZ (107.5 FM) are all notified of our closing (and updates) and can be monitored for information.

   For areas outside the Houston listening/viewing range, appropriate local radio and television stations will be notified as well (i.e., Victoria).

2. In addition, at UH, a voice mail message is sent to all employees’ voice mail boxes, so one can call in and check his/her voice mail for information.

3. At UH, an emergency list-serve will provide the information via personal e-mail to all employees.

4. The Daily Cougar (at UH) will be notified of all emergency weather situations and asked to communicate if possible. (The editor will be notified at home if necessary.)

5. The recording for the main UH number will reflect the status of the emergency.

6. At the other UHS universities, appropriate (pre-determined) internal communication methods will be implemented to provide information.

If there are questions or specific concerns regarding these plans, please contact Cindy Suggs, 713-743-8155.

HURRICANE/WEATHER CLOSING PROCEDURE

1. Chancellor/President or his/her designee makes determination to close UH*, or all UHS universities, based on unsafe weather conditions.

-OR-

1. UH President(s) or his/her designee of one, two or more of the other UHS universities makes determination to close his/her university* based on unsafe weather conditions.

*Ideally, if unsafe weather conditions develop overnight, the decision to close the university is made by 5 A.M. so it can be announced on the 6-7 A.M. newscasts. If unsafe conditions develop during the day, in order to make the 5 and 6 P.M. newscast, the decision to close is ideally made at 2 P.M.

2. President then informs key communications person:

- At UH, that’s either the Associate Vice President/Assoc. Vice Chancellor of University Relations or the Director of External Communications (if it’s the former, he/she informs the latter).

- At the other UHS institutions, it’s the on-site key communications person (who then informs the UH Director of External Communications).

3. Director of UH External Communications then begins the university-wide (or system-wide) and community-wide communications process. That entails:

a. contacting Internal Communications so that appropriate internal communications measures can begin (see #4 below).

b. writing a brief news release with the necessary details; faxing to Houston media (starting with KUHF and KUHT) and to the Daily Cougar (or calling the editor at home if necessary); or, if applicable, to the Victoria and/or Sugar Land media.

c. Using UH External Communications staff to make phone calls to various Houston media (primarily R/TV), asking the media to air the announcement immediately.

d. calling other UHS universities and/or operations (if it is only UH or it is UHS-wide) to communicate closing.

e. keeping in touch with either the Associate Vice President/Vice Chancellor for University Relations or the President to evaluate the need for future announcement(s) (i.e., updates, "return to campus" call, etc.).

4. Director (or other member of) UH Internal Communications, will

a. immediately record and send a voice mail message to all UH employees.

b. put closing notice on the recorded message for incoming UH calls (713-743-1000).

c. send e-mail through the emergency list-serve to all UH faculty and staff.

5. Key communications personnel at other UHS universities implement the various internal communications processes (that they have predetermined) to alert their employees and students, including reminding them to listen to/watch/read Houston (or other, i.e., Victoria or Sugar Land) media to keep abreast of weather updates.

6. Director of UH External Communications then communicates updates/return to work messages by repeating steps 3, a-e; Internal Communications repeats step 4; other UH university communication personnel repeat step 5, until situation is resolved and university work/life returns to normal.

7. All department leaders are expected to communicate personally with their immediate department if possible. This means department rosters (including home phone numbers and pagers) should be updated to ensure an easy, fast communication process.