Goals and Objectives

Business Continuity Planning is the process whereby organizations guarantee the continuation of critical operations when faced with adverse events such as natural disasters, technology failures, pandemic, or terrorism. The objectives of a business continuity plan are to minimize loss to the organization, continue to serve customers, and preserve administrative operations. Hurricane Katrina made a huge impact on the country, and brought to light the need for every educational institution to develop a business continuity plan.

The University has a duty to protect and provide for students, faculty, staff, and visitors if there should be a major disruption of our mission. Each Department must be able to meet certain obligations. These include the ability to provide the primary services expected of them, and to perform those functions critical to the mission of The University, should an event interrupt the normal course of operations.

Business Continuity Planning does not just involve the recovery of technology. It focuses on maintaining and recovering the business. Failure to have an adequate continuity plan could lead to financial distress, interruptions of academic classes, collapse of research projects, and the inability of The University to carry out other mission critical activities.

Business Continuity Taskforce

In fall, 2006 a Business Continuity Taskforce (BCT) was formed on campus.  It is co-chaired by the Vice-President for Planning and CIO, Jerome DeSanto, and the Associate Vice-President for Finance, Edward Steinmetz.  Each division appointed one or more members to the BCT in an effort to develop a continuity plan. These staff members have been contributing valuable input into the business continuity planning effort.