Continuity planning

 

All departments, units, faculties, schools and other units that conduct teaching, research or public service should have a continuity plan. Other units that provide essential support or infrastructure to these units should also do continuity planning. These two definitions encompass virtually every unit of the campus.

Continuity planning addresses the question: how can we prepare to continue operations despite those adverse events that we call emergencies - or if we can't continue, how can we resume our operations rapidly and gracefully.

The mission of higher education is teaching, research and public service. These three enterprises, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are the focus of our continuity planning. A departmental continuity plan:

• Identifies your department's critical functions;
• Describes how you might carry on these functions under conditions of diminished resources (staff, space, equipment or IT infrastructure);
• Contains various information that will be needed during and after the emergency; and
• Describes how we can prepare. This is the most important of all. A good continuity plan will identify action items: things we can do now to lessen the impact of emergencies and make it easier to recover.

Introductory Sessions on Continuity Planning for department/unit administrators are available by request. Please contact Holly Tobin, 709-864-7661 or htobin@mun.ca for more information.

 MIMS Continuity Plan Instructions