January 28, 2010
New manager to help make travel abroad safer for UW community
The arrival of the UW’s first-ever travel security and information manager, Brent Barker, marks an important step in making travel abroad by members of the UW community safer and more secure.
The creation of this position is a critical element in implementing the UW’s Global Emergency Management Program, which provides advice, training and a safety net for students studying abroad or UW faculty and staff conducting UW business overseas.
Barker brings 20 years of security experience with the State Department. He had numerous short term assignments at embassies around the world that had critical needs as well as long term assignments to embassies and consulates. He served in the Mobile Security Division, which is on call for immediate transport to any trouble spot. In one particularly memorable assignment, he was dispatched to Nairobi, Kenya, immediately after a bomb exploded next to the embassy, killing 44 people, 12 of whom were American citizens.
Barker’s role with the Diplomatic Security Service was to be the law enforcement and security representative for the U.S. ambassador. If there was a crisis, he would use his experience and contacts with local law enforcement and government officials to help keep the embassy and its inhabitants safe.
“Brent brings a remarkable range of experience to this position,” says Steve Hanson, vice provost for global affairs. The UW is now one of just eight universities in the country to have a fulltime position for overseas security, but Hanson expects many universities to create such positions in the near future.
“Globalization means that all 192 countries [that are United Nations members] are important,” he says. “The University is conducting research around the world. Engaging students in global issues, in what is often a dangerous world, has created a new need, which we will meet with the Global Emergency Management Program.”
The program, the result of work begun in 2008 by the Global Support Project, created by Finance and Facilities, in collaboration with the Office of Global Affairs and Student Life, defines the steps that should occur before, during and after international travel by members of the UW community engaged in University business. The need for such a program may be self-evident to some, but consider what has occupied part of Barker’s time since he arrived less than a month ago. There were race riots in the Calabria region of Italy. There is proposed legislation in Uganda that would decree the death penalty for homosexuality. And, most recently, there is the earthquake in Haiti. In all three cases, there was a possibility that UW faculty, staff or students might be affected.
Barker lists his key responsibilities as:
- Providing information to the UW community that enhances safety
- Responding to emergencies
- Developing emergency plans for travel abroad
- Making UW travelers aware of their own role in traveling safely
- Making sure travelers know what support is available through the Global Emergency Management Program.
Barker is in the process of meeting with key individuals involved in travel abroad to find out what their approach to emergencies has been and what they might need. “The goal is to create an organized system with guidelines for handling any emergency,” he says, “recognizing that the emergency that happens may not fall into any neat category created in advance. We also intend to have after-action reports to gauge how well we did so we can improve over time.”
Perhaps the key aspect of emergency management is information. “We need to get accurate information and not act on the basis of rumor,” Hanson says. “Brent’s contacts and his experience are worth their weight in gold. I cannot think of anyone else who could step into a position like this and immediately add such tremendous value.”
The Global Emergency Management Program, developed in consultation with many of those individuals with international involvement, has a number of key features:
- Enhanced training for faculty and students in safety and security
- Review of students’ disciplinary records to see if there is anything that might disqualify them for study abroad
- Required health insurance and travel assistance for those in study abroad programs
- Briefings for UW travelers going abroad
- A travel registry of students traveling abroad
- A Web site devoted entirely to safety and security for international travelers
- Coordinated response to incidents or problems abroad involving UW people
- A contingency fund to cover unplanned expenses arising from emergencies
- A 24-hour international travel emergency phone line, staffed by University Police
The implementation plan calls for faculty training to begin this spring, with summer 2010 study abroad programs to have full benefit of the plan.
“We’ve relied too much on on-the-job learning with both faculty and students,” Hanson says. “International Programs and Exchanges is now instituting mandatory training workshops for faculty, which must be renewed every third year. These will bring together highly-experienced study abroad faculty with neophytes, as well as our University experts on student life, mental health, and travel security. The Exploration Seminars are now administered through IP&E as well and Brent’s presentations on travel security and safety will be a centerpiece of the orientations we conduct for everyone.”
When travel is proposed to a country or location that might pose safety issues (such as being listed on the State Department’s warning list), the proposal will be reviewed by the newly-created International Travel Oversight Committee.
“Campus units have different reactions to planning a trip to a region that is on the warning list,” says Kate Riley, global support project manager, “so one task for the committee will be to provide consistency in preparation and planning when UW people are traveling to trouble spots.”
The committee will include Riley; Hanson; Barker; Peter Moran, director of International Programs and Exchanges; a representative of the Attorney General’s Division; a representative from Risk Management; and faculty members with expertise in the region. The goal is to bring to bear all the information necessary to reach a decision that ensures the safety of participants.
International Programs and Exchanges is also instituting new policies to this same end. Any study abroad led by faculty and involving more than 10 students will require two program leaders, appointed through the sponsoring department; all faculty-led study abroad programs will also require approval of their department chair, their divisional dean, and International Programs and Exchanges.
“Our current efforts are a continuation of the work of the Global Support Project, which began three years ago,” says Ann Anderson, associate vice president of financial management. “Our primary focus is students. Faculty need to be prepared, to know what they can do and what resources are available when a problem arises. We recognize that international programs come in a great variety. But any person on UW business will have access to assistance and information through the program.”
Brent Barker’s 24-hour phone number is: 206-616-7927. His email is: barkerb@u.washington.edu.
