JUST A FEW HOURS AFTER THE Virginia Tech tragedy, so-called experts in crisis communication were prompt to criticize the emergency response of the university, which had just been hit by the worst campus shooting spree in U.S. history. In the following days, many stayed busy crucifying the institution for the time it took to give the alert after the first shooting incident. If almost nobody in the mainstream media noticed what the web communications and IT teams pulled off that day, the higher education community saluted this tour-de-force and wondered how the Virginia Tech website managed to stay up throughout the tragedy.
"On April 16, 2007, the homepage received more than a million visits, almost 10 times the traffic of a typical Monday," said Mike Dame, web communication director at Virginia Tech, each time he spoke at communication and technology conferences over the past year.
Despite this incredible spike in traffic, the website never went down.
HOW DID THEY DO IT?
"Having our 'home page light' template ready to go proved invaluable. Within 15 minutes of making the decision to go to our light version, we had loaded it with content and made the switch. This was less than a half hour after the shooting ended," explains Dame.
Crisis web templates
shouldn't be built in a
vacuum by the web team.
Virginia Tech had this "light version" ready to use because it had experienced another crisis in August 2006: an escaped convict killed a security guard and a police officer near Blacksburg, resulting in the closing of the campus. After that incident, Dame and his team prepared the stripped-down version of the homepage that got used on the morning of April 16, 2007.
This degree of preparation, along with Dame's previous experience in handling crises as an online newspaper editor in Florida, made a big difference for the millions of web visitors in search of answers from university officials.
Had the homepage gone down that day for a few hours-as it did at Union University (Tenn.) in February after a tornado destroyed two dormitories and injured 51 students-the impact on the shocked and grieving Hokie community would have been even worse.
Over the past 12 months, many things have been said, written, and done to find better ways to send emergency notifications to campus communities across the United States and Canada. With the help of vendor solutions, numerous higher ed institutions now have a system in place to quickly alert their students, faculty, and staff members in case of an emergency via phone, text message, or e-mail.
But how many IHEs have taken the time to build a light version of their homepage that could make the difference between a functioning website and a nondeliverable web page the day a major crisis strikes? Not enough.
Whether you have a crisis web template ready or not, follow these tips to ensure your institution's website is up and running even in the middle of a big emergency.
1. Make the effort part of the institution's emergency plan.
Crisis web templates shouldn't be built in a vacuum by the web team. If something happens on campus, the website will be one of the most important communication channels. Finding out what type of crises to plan for and how communications will be handled by the group in charge of the emergency response will help in designing the most efficient template. "Work closely with the individuals who are responsible for the university's emergency procedures," advises Rick Rhone, university webmaster at Winona State University (Minn.).
2. Define roles and responsibilities for web communications.
Make sure the school's crisis communication plan includes specifics on how the decision to switch to the crisis homepage will be made and who will be responsible for producing its content. In the aftermath of a major crisis, your website should relay the official voice of your institution to students, faculty, staff, parents, friends, news representatives, and the world. Discussing roles, responsibilities, and the web template with the main decision makers ahead of time will avoid dreadful information bottlenecks by creating an effective workflow to publish vetted updates.
