“It’s important to get together with everyone from the Big Ten so that (we) can look at what their successes have been, and not only that, but also to prepare for the future,” MSU Police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said. “So strategizing in terms of what not only Michigan State can do, but what kind of information can be shared with each other to keep the community safe should something happen.”

With every university in the Big Ten represented, the conference annually takes place sometime in July or August. The host rotates each year, since first started in 2007, MSU Police Capt. Penny Fischer said.

The conference usually is two days and emergency managers make presentations and share some of their best practices.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to kind of be with our peers,” Fischer said. “We all do the same thing, we all are emergency managers. Certainly something that happens at another institution could happen here, so we can always offer good suggestions.”

One of the presenters, Residential Hospitality Services, or RHS, safety coordinator Joe Petroff, spoke about CERT – a pathway for involvement in the community.

CERT works to educate and prepare people for disasters that could impact their area and was formed as part of an initial Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA grant back in 2005, Petroff said.

“Today I’m hoping that people get better awareness with what the CERT program could do for their college or university,” Petroff said. “I’m just providing them with some baseline training and organizations as an option for them.”

Petroff explained CERT is community based and typically happens in more residential-based communities, such as a neighborhood watch.

FEMA currently is in the process of writing the materials for an implementation guide.

“I think it’s important for MSU because it helps make a good connection between the community responders and the MSU police,” Petroff said.

“They are the people we look to to handle the big part of emergency response, but being able to interact well with law enforcement is a key piece to that.”