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The MPA in Emergency and Disaster Management
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ResourcesMCNY BlogsMCNY's Emergency and Disaster Management Blog MCNY Presentation - The Titanic RememberedMarch 30th, 2009 On Wednesday, April 15, 2009, the Emergency Management and Homeland Security MPA program at Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) will host its annual “Titanic Day” presentation. Titled, “The Titanic Remembered”, this year’s presentation will feature Professor David Longshore in a remembrance of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, on April 15, 1912 - an event that not only resulted in the loss of 1,533 men, women, and children, but also a change in global mindsets regarding the culture of disaster. In many ways, disaster at sea prior to the Titanic’s loss was simply a case of “bad luck”, of being on the wrong ship at the wrong time. But after the Titanic disaster, the emphasis of safety at sea shifted to a more preventative paradigm, one that we still employ with great efficacy to this day. “The Titanic Remembered” will begin at 6:30 pm on April 15, 2009, at MCNY’s Manhattan Campus, located at 431 Canal Street, 11th Floor Conference Center. Unlike the Titanic, we have seats available for everyone, so please join us for this respectful, and interesting, remembrance. Questions can be directed to Disaster Central, or to MCNY’s Admissions Office. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Events, MCNY EDM Program. 2 Comments » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. Scholarship Opportunity for Team Juliet (Spring 2009)January 7th, 2009 The Emergency and Disaster Management MPA program at Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) is pleased to announce the creation of the Scholarship for Heroes, a one-time scholarship for students who enter the EDM program during the spring semester of 2009. The scholarship is designed to recognize the important role Emergency Managers and Homeland Security practitioners play in keeping the United States a safer, more prosperous nation. The College is also offering the scholarship in the hopes of providing an additional resource to those who are interested in obtaining an education in EDM, but may lack the necessary financial wherewithal. The Scholarship for Heroes will provide qualified members of Team Juliet (Spring 2009 semester) with $2,000 per semester (to be applied toward tuition costs) for the entire four semester duration of the program. In order to preserve the scholarship, students will be required to maintain a 3.0 GPA, and be in good standing with the College. Because this is a one-time opportunity, candidates who are interested in the Scholarship for Heroes should contact MCNY’s Office of Admissions without delay. Registration for the spring semester is open for the next two weeks. If you’re interested in joining this elite team with the advantage of a Scholarship for Heroes, please call (212) 343-1234, Ext. 5001 or log onto MCNY’s Admissions website at:www.metropolitan.edu. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in MCNY EDM Program. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. MCNY EDM Themed Open House - “Britannia’s Sorrow”December 2nd, 2008 On Saturday, December 13, 2008, Metropolitan College of New York’s MPA program in Emergency Management and Homeland Security will host its monthly Open House for potential applicants to the program, those who may be considering a rewarding and exciting career in Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and wish more information on what educational opportunities exist to make this a reality, and the general public. The event will begin at 11:00 a.m., and take place in the first floor Admissions Center at MCNY’s lower Manhattan campus, 431 Canal Street. Since MCNY believes in vertically-integrated education, its Open Houses often feature a brief lecture or demonstration that simulates the spirit of its educational quality. As part of the December 2008 Open House for the EDM program, Professor David Longshore will present, “Britannia’s Sorrow,” a Powerpoint show which details the tragic loss of the British warship, HMS Victoria, in June of 1893 - and those lessons learned from the event that are applicable to the Emergency Management and Homeland Security practitioners of today. In addition, guests will be able to meet with admissions specialists, current students, faculty members, and program alumni. More information on this event can be obtained by visiting MCNY’s website (please see the Links on Disaster Central’s menu bar), or calling MCNY at (212) 343-1234. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Events, MCNY EDM Program. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire - Another LookOctober 28th, 2008 On Tuesday, October 28, 2008, Kentucky governor Steve Beshear announced the formation of an independent panel of experts to “review assertions” that the third-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history – which had previously been attributed to the use of aluminum wiring – may have actually been a case of arson. (Article can be accessed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29kentucky.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) On the night of May 28, 1977, the Beverly Hills Supper Club, located in Southgate, Kentucky, caught fire. It was Memorial Day weekend, and the posh supper club (which had dubbed itself the “Showplace of the Nation”) was packed with some 3,000 guests, and nearly 200 employees. Like many swank entertainment venues that have through history been the scene of horrific – and yet preventable - tragedies, the Beverly Hills Supper Club was long on crystal chandeliers and plush carpets, but woefully short on fire prevention practices and safe building standards. Shortly after 9:00 pm, as fire and noxious smoke suddenly coursed through the supper club’s labyrinth of spiral staircases, corridors, and dining rooms, terrified patrons and staff commenced a desperate struggle to escape the hilltop inferno. Overcrowding, a lack of sprinklers, and obscured exit signs contributed to the deaths of 165 people. Another 200 or so were injured. (An excellent series of articles on the fire and its aftermath by the Cincinnati Enquirer can be accessed here: http://www.enquirer.com/beverlyhills/index2.html) Just over three decades later, the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire understandably remains a painful and controversial topic in Kentucky and neighboring Ohio. Governor Beshear’s decision to establish the panel followed meetings with several of the fire’s survivors, as well as an in-depth review by fire experts of the extensive documentary material connected with the case. According to an October 28, 2008, New York Times article by journalist Stacy L. Neitzel, several survivors prepared a report that expressed their concern that arson may have been the cause of the deadly blaze. Among those on the panel are two law professors from the University of Kentucky, and the former special prosecutor, Cecil F. Dunn, who had produced a report of his findings in February of 1979 for the Kentucky Attorney General’s office. While we wait to see the final results of the panel’s investigations into the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, Disaster Central believes that Governor Beshear has made a wise decision in establishing the panel. Disaster Central realizes that a historical, political, social, or legal re-evaluation of a disaster is most often a painful exercise for those touched by the disaster. And yet, it also understands that because emergency management and homeland security are experiential (in that we learn from what has occurred) in nature, it is important to know as much about the mechanics of disaster as possible. As part of MCNY’s MPA program in Emergency and Disaster Management, students are given the opportunity to study fire disasters like the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston in 1942, and the Beverly Hills tragedy in 1977, to better understand not only what happened, and why, but what to do as emergency managers should it happen again. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Emergency Management Planning, MCNY EDM Program. 4 Comments » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management ProgramSeptember 14th, 2008 During one of our recent Emergency Management and Homeland Security Open Houses, a young woman asked why she should attend Metropolitan College of New York’s (MCNY) Emergency and Disaster Management MPA program as the next step in her educational advancement. It’s a common question, a good question, and is one of the primary reasons why the EDM program runs a monthly Open House for prospective candidates – or for those who simply want to discover more about the exciting, life-saving world that is Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Yes, it’s true that MCNY’s EDM program is one of the oldest of its kind in the nation…yes, it’s true that MCNY’s EDM program features top-flight faculty who work in the field…yes, it’s true that our course listings are among the most innovative and useful in the community…yes, it’s true that every year our students travel to Israel to study counterterrorism operations…and yes, it’s true that MCNY’s EDM program seeks to educate instead of simply teach. But yes, above all our program is about opportunity…the opportunity to find something new, interesting, and rewarding to do for a living…and the opportunity to enter (or rise within) a field whose many mission areas involve the most noble and humanistic of undertakings – that of preparing for, responding to, and recovering from those natural, technological, and other hazards that relentlessly threaten our livelihoods, not to mention our very lives. So many of the people we speak to these days at our Open Houses express a frustration with their present careers, a lack of enthusiasm for the humdrum limitations of a service-based economy, and their desire to re-awaken the sense of wonder and hope that they once held for their professional lives. Others have shared their concerns that opportunities in exciting and vital careers aren’t as plentiful as they once were, or that opportunities for advancement within those fields aren’t available for those who haven’t undertaken the dynamic quest that is higher education. For these and so many other reasons, MCNY’s EDM program seeks to provide its students with an opportunity from which to make further opportunities. By their very nature, Emergency Management and Homeland Security are challenging fields that require the support of well-trained, enthusiastic, hard-working, dedicated, and conscientious individuals in order to achieve their life-saving and system-saving objectives. Winston Churchill once remarked that the best way to build strong communities is to give children milk. Following a disaster, the best way to rebuild damaged communities is to make sure that everyone has milk, shelter, medical care, financial resources – and hope. For those who are seeking to pursue a career in which the capital is human, not simply monetary, MCNY’s EDM program can provide you with an opportunity to do just that. Based on the College’s unique Constructive Action (CA) concept established nearly half-a-century ago by visionary educator Audrey Cohen, MCNY’s EDM provides its students with the opportunity to learn through action and experience. In the past, students in the EDM program have compiled security and emergency response plans for corporations, religious organizations, and other educational facilities; have designed and implemented training and educational programs in Emergency Management and Homeland Security; have learned how to write grants through the writing of grants; have designed and implemented Emergency Management and Homeland Security conferences and symposia; have learned the skills of Public Information by writing and managing a monthly newsletter for MCNY’s student chapter of the International Emergency Manager Student Association (IEMSA); participated as volunteers, observers, controllers, and players in field and tabletop exercises conducted by local and state emergency management organizations; and yes, done much, much more. During the four years that MCNY’s EDM program has been in existence, many of its graduates have made new opportunities for themselves in the Emergency Management and Homeland Security fields. Our accomplished graduates have earned themselves positions in private companies, in non-profit organizations tasked with EM objectives, and in local, State, and federal agencies. A visit to MCNY’s website, where the latest edition of IEMSA-MCNY’s monthly newsletter, The Presser, is available, indicates the scope of opportunities that have been discovered – and the quality of our students who’ve made their career dreams a reality. In conclusion, allow me to add a personal note: on September 11, 2001, I was working as a Public Information Officer (PIO) at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM). Our offices were in the World Trade Center complex, and all of us were in the thick of it from the start. On that day and for many more to come, I worked alongside some of the finest human beings I’ve ever known. Their individual and collective sense of duty, of courage, and of sacrifice will always represent for me the opportunity to see the very best in human behavior under the very worst of inhuman circumstances. Many of them remain my friends to this day. They wouldn’t be a part of my life today had I not pursued the opportunity that is Emergency Management. Several months after the disaster, I was in my office at our temporary Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at Pier 92 when my supervisor handed me an envelope and said, “This is for you.” I opened it and withdrew a card, obviously handmade by a young child, that had been decorated with crayon outlines of the Twin Towers, and in which had been written in crayon: “Dear Mr. Rescuer: Thanx for helping the hurt people.” The card was unsigned, and as there wasn’t a return address on the envelope, I’d no idea where in the country or world it’d come from – but it didn’t matter, for I knew it had come, as they say, from the heart. Like the opportunity to make new friends and colleagues, it was one of those moments in the life and career of an Emergency Manager that puts into perspective what often counts. The opportunity for positive reflection, for seeing tangible progress, for proactively anticipating the worst while working to effectively achieve the best, is something that we don’t often find in today’s career market. But Emergency Management and Homeland Security are different. They provide us with the opportunity to turn chaos and despair and fear and deprivation into order, hope, tranquility, and prosperity. And in the process, further give us the opportunity to receive some very beautiful thank you notes. In this and so many other ways, the fast-growing world of Emergency Management and Homeland Security provides some of the best opportunities to learn, to grow, and to succeed while doing something of benefit to the community at large. If you’re interested in the opportunity that is Emergency Management and Homeland Security, then Metropolitan College of New York’s MPA program in Emergency and Disaster Management is a great place to start. Please join us for one or more of our upcoming Open Houses. And speaking of Open Houses…you recall the young woman who asked me “Why MCNY?” Well, two weeks ago, she – along with 19 other men and women in her team – commenced her studies in Emergency and Disaster Management as part of the fall 2008 semester at MCNY. Welcome! Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in MCNY EDM Program. 1 Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. MPA in Emergency and Disaster Management Open HouseSeptember 3rd, 2008 Tonight, September 4, 2008, Professor Longshore will present another of his Open Houses, this one titled, “What is Emergency Management?” The event, which features a PowerPoint presentation, refreshments, and lively interaction with members of the audience, will begin at 6:00 pm, at MCNY’s campus at 431 Canal Street (on the corner of Canal and Varick Streets, and accessible by the 1 subway train, Canal Street stop), in the first floor Admissions Center. Disaster Central’s readers are cordially invited to stop by and check out our exciting and rewarding program. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in MCNY EDM Program. 1 Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. MPA Emergency Management and Homeland Security SymposiumJune 26th, 2008
The MPA program in Emergency and Disaster Management at Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) was pleased to welcome Joseph F. Bruno, Commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM), as the keynote speaker for our first annual Emergency Management and Homeland Security Symposium. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Homeland Security, Emergency Management Planning, MCNY EDM Program, Videos. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. The Titanic CrisisApril 17th, 2008 I’d like to thank those of you who were able to attend our April 16 presentation, “The Titanic Crisis”, held at MCNY to commemorate the 96th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. While it’s true that emergency management and homeland security specialists draw upon the experiential sciences in devising preparedness, response, and recovery protocols, it’s equally true that there’s a metaphysical approach to both fields - an approach that thus far is only (forgive the pun) the tip of the iceberg. As part of the presentation, I posited a “mythical” approach to the Titanic’s symbolic role in shaping many of the concepts emergency managers and homeland security professionals use today. Despite embodying some of the finest and most innovative technology of its day, the Titanic didn’t prove to be unsinkable, or even “virtually unsinkable”, and the ship’s demise was as shocking a technological failure as it was a human event that claimed the lives of over 1,500 men, women, and children. The seeming inevitability of the Titanic’s sinking (due, in large part, to the “incident pit” in which the ship found itself) leads us to wonder if there were factors (some actual and tangible, some symbolic) that influenced the final outcome, but remain specifically unknown to us today. This understanding formed the metaphysical thread that I used to link our interpretation of the Titanic disaster as a technological failure, and perhaps a failure of a larger and more amorphous magnitude. Some may contend that this failure is societal or cultural in nature, while others may apply a more philosophical or even religious patina to the events of April 14-15, 1912. To my mind, the ship’s builders and operators traded the metaphysical good sense of objectives for that technological hubris often mistaken as capability. It’s well known that technology is good only when designed and applied with wisdom. I use the word “wisdom” guardedly because many aspects of emergency management and homeland security “wisdom” remain undefined and ill-used. Nearly seven years after the events of September 11, 2001, and just five years after the formation of the United States Department of Homeland Security, we’re still in the process of wresting from our experience, our knowledge, and our desires the metaphysical underpinnings of the emergency management and homeland security disciplines. Like the Titanic’s builders and operators, we perhaps limit our concepts and practices to what has been defined by past experience, or suits our more immediate objectives, such as commerce or political power. The Titanic wasn’t built to prove or disprove the wisdom or reality of an “unsinkable ship.” It was built to generate a profit by carrying passengers and cargo across the North Atlantic Ocean. And while the vessel was publicized as being “virtually sinkable”, this was a mere marketing tool, a reassuring nod to the seagoing public that the ship’s creators knew from past experience that crossing the Atlantic was always a dangerous business. Here we see the concept of risk turned into appeal, and that appeal (it was hoped) transformed into increased passenger patronage and profits. I’m reminded of an aeronautical engineer who once remarked that they could build an aircraft that would never crash, but it would never fly, either. Along a similar vein, had the Titanic truly been constructed (as they believed it had) to be unsinkable, it probably wouldn’t have floated - which it did…for a while. But it’s within this paradox, this often tangential tension between reality and symbolism…between preparedness and fantasy…that the metaphysical aspects of emergency management and homeland security exist. There’s a body of knowledge regarding these two fields that influences our plans and actions, but is of yet unknown to us. It can be said that we’ll know more after the next disaster occurs, and from an experiential viewpoint, the point is a valid one. Of the two fields, emergency management is presently geared more toward recovery than either preparedness or response; and when it does engage the anticipatory approach, it’s in order to determine the parameters of a particular type of recovery. And while homeland security’s mission is characterized by a more “anticipatory” approach than is emergency management, its doctrinal (and conceptual) foundations remain unfinished. Even nearly a century after its loss, the Titanic continues to provide intellectual fodder for the EM and HLS communities. This source material, paid for that night by the sheer terror experienced by 2,200 people, inspires us to learn its many bitter lessons - one of which is that there’s a lot less to technology (or capabilities) than one might think, and much more to “attitude” or objectives than one may know. Professor Longshore Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Homeland Security, Evacuation, MCNY EDM Program. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program.
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