SMU’s University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA) and SMU kicked off “Risky Business: A Week Focusing on Risk Management’s Contributions to Higher Education” Monday, a collaborative week-long event aiming to build awareness of the solutions provided by risk management.
“Our goal is to make sure whatever the students are doing goes well and if it doesn’t go well, we are able to put the organization back together,” said Director of Risk Management, David Liner.
The purpose of Risk Management week is to educate the student body on risk management on campus through four events throughout the week as well as a webinar each day from Monday-Thursday.
Events cover everything from SMU’s risk policies and risk management while traveling abroad to a debriefing on what happened when the suspicious package was delivered at the Bush Center and how the Risk Management Office handles such situations.
“Hosting events like risk management week to inform students on SMU’s policies is a good idea,” senior An Phan said.
The week commenced with an introduction to Risk Management Trends, open to all students, and ended Thursday with a webinar titled “How can YOU Protect Your Institution’s Data in Your Daily Activities?”
ERCOT Presentation, CCTV: Seeing Into the Future of SMU, New Trends of International Travel are other events held throughout the week. Although besides the introduction event held Monday, the events weren’t open to all faculty, staff and students.
However, as long as spots were reserved ahead of time, the webinars were available to everyone. In addition to Thursday’s webinar, others include “Working with Student Organizations: The RM Process for Students and How to Manage your Own Risks,” “Transportation Locally and Around the World” and “Know Before You go — Vaccinating Against Travel Risks: Best Practices for Policy and Preparation.”
This week “will recognize the risk management professionals who advocate for students, faculty, staff and the institutions and communities they serve. Risk management on college campuses is everyone’s job; this week will encourage stakeholders to work with our nation’s risk managers to create a culture of risk management that spans the entire year,” The Office of Risk Management said.
According to Liner, risk management is more than just buying insurance and working with the police office, it’s about having policies in place that prevent risks but also policies that manage situations in case something goes wrong.
“We manage risk tomorrow today,” Liner said. “We put organizations back together. If something happens with a student organization we want to make sure they can be put together how they were. Risk Management Week is working with everyone on campus, in the risk area and combined with the police and our goal is to make sure whatever the students are doing goes well and we are able to put it back together if it doesn’t go well.”
