A disaster resilient university is able to adapt and even thrive in the face of uncertainty. Cultivating a disaster resilient university (or college campus) requires a focused effort on the part of the entire university community, including leadership, faculty, administrative professionals, staff, students, and external partners. Creating links with campus partners to assess and address vulnerabilities, so our campuses can continue to innovate and excel.

To become a more resilient university, we strive for proficiency in three areas: 

• Strong leadership and culture which stimulates the ability to stay aware, stay engaged, adapt, and make good decisions.
• Well-developed networks which helps us use partnerships to leverage assets efficiently.
• Change readiness which requires active planning, proactive thinking, and innovative problem-solving. 

The DRU Network assists universities nationwide by providing practitioners a multidisciplinary online platform to leverage their diverse knowledge, expertise, and skills. 

The DRU Network works to facilitate open communication, discussion, and resource sharing among university/college practitioners of all areas of expertise. A cornerstone of resilience is establishing effective partnerships and networks. The peer-to-peer information sharing among DRU members helps them and others mitigate, prepare for, respond to, operate during, and recover from all types of campus emergencies. Collectively and professionally we can strengthen the resilience of universities and colleges by sharing our experiences, strategies, technical resources, processes, and lessons learned.

We believe our integrated organizational approach will soon become a model of how to turn one of the campus’ greatest concerns — the safety and well-being of our people — into our strongest asset for building a resilient university. 

André Le Duc,

DRU Network Founder and Administrator 

DRU has joined the new Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments (IROCE) at the University of Oregon.

This content is migrating to resilient.uoregon.edu in the coming weeks.