UIC Ready helps students, employees stay prepared

Julie Grey, emergency management specialist in the UIC Office of Preparedness and Response, hands out UIC Ready materials to students on campus.

UIC students are learning to expect the unexpected with potentially life-saving information and tools from the Office of Preparedness and Response.

The materials are part of the group’s ongoing preparedness campaign called UIC Ready, which shares guidelines with community members to help them prepare for and respond to emergency situations. In support of the student campaign this year, the office is distributing five pocket-sized preparedness products to all UIC students. The new materials, which are free, include pocketbooks, scroll pens, keychains, whistles and ponchos.

“These products were developed to help our campus community prepare for any type of hazard,” said Julie Grey, emergency management specialist in the UIC Office of Preparedness and Response.

Focus groups with students and staff helped with product development, added Nicole Sammartino, the university’s Clery Act compliance coordinator.

“We really wanted the campaign to be student informed, as well as student driven,” Sammartino said.

UIC’s emergency response pocket book.

Among the materials being offered to students is an emergency response pocket book, which serves as a quick reference for everything from responding to natural disasters to identifying a suspicious package.

“It’s easy to read and really concise,” said Adriana Solis Martinez, a communications and marketing specialist who designed the materials.

Similarly, a scroll pen, which can also be used as a stylus, includes a pull-out scroll with simple steps for reacting to active threats. A keychain allows students to document critical information for first responders, like an emergency contact or allergies, and a UIC Ready whistle designed by search-and-rescue professionals gives students a way to call for help in any type of emergency with a blast of up to 120 decibels.

With these materials, the Office of Preparedness and Response staff hope that the campus community will feel more confident about staying safe on and off campus.

“The more information that we can get out into the hands of our students, the better off we all are,” said Bryan Stoll, the Office of Preparedness and Response’s emergency management training and exercise specialist.

To request these materials, email ready@uic.edu.