U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of $5.2 million for 13 new grants to colleges and universities to develop and implement emergency management plans for preventing and responding to campus violence and natural disasters in order to ensure the safety of the entire campus community.

"Keeping students safe starts with planning ahead," said Spellings. "These new grants will help college administrators coordinate with law enforcement, health officials, and state and local governments to prevent violence and prepare institutions to respond quickly and efficiently if emergencies occur."

Funded for the first time in 2008, Emergency Management for Higher Education (EMHE) grants fund activities within the four phases of emergency management—prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery—to prepare for the whole range of threats that can impact a campus, including, but not limited to: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, campus violence, suicides, and infectious disease outbreaks. The grants are for 18 months.

Funding for the EMHE grants is made available through the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

A list of grantees follows:

Arkansas

• Pulaski Technical College
  North Little Rock, AR
  Carol Langston
  $218,965

Florida

• Daytona Beach Community College
  Daytona Beach, FL
  William Tillard
  $501,060

Georgia

• Emory University
  Atlanta, GA
  Robert Nadolski
  $499,788

Illinois

• Northern Illinois University
  Dekalb, IL
  Donald Grady
  $465,059

Indiana

• Indiana University
  Indianapolis, IN
  Diane Mack
  $448,890

Massachusetts

• Middlesex Community College
  Lowell, MA
  Patrick Cook
  $189,504

New Jersey

• Salem Community College
  Carneys Point, NJ
  John Morrison
  $58,288

New Mexico

• University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
  Albuquerque, NM
  Laura Banks
  $482,807

New York

• CUNY Research Foundation/BMCC
  New York, NY
  Sunil Gupta
  $500,000
• Nassau Community College
  Garden City, NY
  Mary Mirabito
  $470,703
• Rochester Institute of Technology
  Rochester, NY
  Lynn Daley
  $392,523

Michigan

• Oakland University
  Rochester, MI
  Samuel Lucido
  $423,999

Mississippi

• The University of Southern Mississippi
  Hattiesburg, MS
  Lou Marciani
  $476,486

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