Buyer Beware: Students helping students

Dear post-secondary student of Manitoba,

It is my understanding that many of you are concerned about the possible H1N1 pandemic in your institution. I realize many questions have likely crossed your mind such as: What will happen to your tuition money in the event your school shuts down? What happens if you get sick and have to miss a lot of school? What is your school doing to prepare itself? These are all valid questions that deserve answers.

However, while I may not be able to answer your questions specifically, I can tell you this: all five major post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, namely the University of Manitoba (U of M), The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg), Red River College (RRC), Brandon University (BU), and Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (CUSB), have not only an H1N1 crisis plan, but they also have a crisis plan that aims to prepare for any type of crisis situation.

Recently my fellow team members and I examined the five major institutions’
H1N1 pandemic preparedness plans (H1N1 crisis communication plan) to see just how prepared Manitoba’s colleges and universities are for an H1N1 outbreak and most importantly whether or not they are protecting students from and informing them about H1N1. To accomplish the task we consulted each of the five institutions’ website’s to see what information they released to you regarding H1N1 in your school. We chose websites because they are usually the primary communication tool between students and the educational institution. And then in order to obtain advice on what makes a good crisis plan we spoke with two public relations experts on crisis communications, Melanie Lee Lockhart and Therese Mickelson.

Each institution provided you with information. Although, some had a lot more information posted publicly for you to access.

Before I get into the details regarding what the different institutions’ preparedness plans include, I will first explain what it means to have a crisis communications plan and tell you how the information is usually disseminated. First, the plan is broken into two parts.(Actually there are several; however, two of them are your main concern.) There is a communication plan, which explains how information gets disseminated. And then there is a crisis plan, which explains how to deal with problems. A good plan is prepared for any possible scenario. Each member of the crisis communications team carries the plan on them at all times so they can react immediately.

Now, the reason why you don’t know the entire plan is because, as Melanie Lee Lockhart says, “If people know what could potentially be coming down the pike, it can change their behaviour. They can conduct themselves in a different way than they might if they didn’t have that information. As an institution, you want people to continue behaving as normally as possible until it’s time to not be behaving normally.”

Basically this means that your institution is releasing small bits of their plan at a time. Only the parts that is pertinent at the moment. If they release the whole thing the assumption is that, psychologically whether we mean to do it or not, we could convince ourselves that the worst is going to happen until it does. It is not that your institution does not trust you.

Therefore, new information will be released to you if and when the pandemic escalates.

Now just to illustrate to you how each communication plan can vary I will report to you some of my team’s findings. First, all five institutions provide background information on H1N1. The U of M, UWinnipeg and RRC tell you what you can expect to happen. The U of M is the most thorough in explaining the roles and responsibilities of its employees and students. However, (in order of the most to least amount of coverage) RRC, UWinnipeg and CUSB also discuss roles and responsibilities, just not as extensively. All institutions, except BU, have guidelines available for you on how to cope with missed schoolwork due to possible closures and absences; in other words they predict what might come. And finally, if there is a serious outbreak, U of M and RRC have already publicly announced what they plan on doing to move past a possible crisis. For example, they say how they plan on replacing lost staff members; how they plan on counselling students and staff who need counselling and how they plan on resuming operations. For more detailed information on your institutions preparedness plan please visit its website, all H1N1 plans have a link on the home page.

What you can do for the time being is remain as calm as possible. Continue your daily activities as normal. Stay up-to-date on any changes regarding H1N1 and your institution. Practice the preventative measures given to you on your institutions website. And please, ask your instructors or health official’s questions if you have any. And finally, trust your institution is handling the H1N1 situation – it is.

You can also ask me any questions you may have below. I will do my best to answer them.

Sincerely,
Yvonne Raymond, student reporter.