Dept of Communication Emergency Plan

FLU/EMERGENCY PLAN
Department of Communication

CHAIR
In the event the Chair is unavailable due to illness, Professor Leichty will provide back-up.  Third in line is Professor Hart. E-mails will be sent to all faculty informing them that Professor Leichty or Professor Hart is the acting chair. This will ensure that the Department is able to continue functioning.

STAFF
We currently only have one staff member, so if she gets sick then the student assistants  we have will help cover the office functions.  In addition, Professor Futrell will cover the administrative duties as best he can until our staff member returns.

COMMUNICATIONS
All faculty have access to e-mail at home; we all have each others’ phone numbers.

INSTRUCTORS’ ABSENCE
Standard operating procedure in Communication is that anyone unable to come to work calls the office and reports the difficulty.  We have several methods by which to meet instructional demands:
- Professors in similar areas can help cover courses.
- Professors who Tegrity or Adobe Presentation can rely on previous 
sections of the courses.
- Blackboard or other Content Management Systems can be used to carry 
on course discussions
- Faculty who teach the same courses online as face-to-face can 
continue to teach their courses using the distance ed venue.


STUDENT ABSENCES
Student absences are handled on a per faculty basis, and all faculty are flexible enough to allow make-ups in the case of prolonged illness.  The public speaking courses have the strictest attendence policy, but students will be allowed to make-up missed days by contacting the instructor and/or the program director and arranging for such, assuming they provide adequate documentation of their illness.

UBM
We have no back-up for our UBM.  Whoever is Chair or Acting Chair will take on the responsibilities.

WEBSITE
Professor Futrell manages the web site. Bill Brantley will provide back-up for the website.