When inclement weather impacts App State, students and staff often find out if campus will remain open via email or phone call. These decisions are made by a team of individuals known as the Emergency Management Task Force, which works in tandem with App State’s adverse weather policy.

According to App State’s Emergency Preparedness page, the EMTF is “composed of a primary and at least one alternate representative from each campus entity with a response or resource role during an emergency.” The list of each member of the EMTF can be found here.

The EMTF acts as an advisory group that provides input on preparedness and safety during inclement weather threats. They also have a secondary function as an operational team that deals with larger crisis situations regarding severe weather, Jason Marshburn, the director of Environmental Health, Safety and Emergency Management, said. 

The key role of the EMTF, though, is to manage campus operations in the face of inclement weather through condition updates. Each update affects the university in different ways.

Condition 1 means a minor operations closure and flexible classes. Condition 2 calls for most university functions to be closed, with only mandatory employees reporting for work. Condition 3 can only be enacted after the severe weather event has occurred and mostly relates to the type of pay employees are entitled to following campus closure. 

“The different condition levels really focus on nonteaching employees from the university. They don’t necessarily have a bearing on students or classes, and they don’t necessarily have a bearing on faculty,” Marshburn said.

App State works as a “mini city,” Marshburn said, with campus operations being a 24/7 affair and condition updates stretching to all hours of the day. 

“We aim to get a communication out by 6 a.m. to allow people time to adjust travel schedule, especially recognizing that some people do have to travel from outside the city,” Marshburn said.

The decision for an update is typically made in the morning; however, this may vary due to changes in weather patterns or a later forecast. The EMTF works alongside both private and public weather stations in order to deliver real-time information on weather conditions.

“We want to make sure that, to the best that we can, we’re making good decisions that are going to help influence safety,” Marshburn said.