Findlay, Ohio, Jan. 28, 2003 —The University of Findlay has officially changed the name of its National Center of Excellence for Environmental Management to the School of Environmental and Emergency Management (SEEM).

The name of the center was changed to reflect new programs and a new direction, according to Randy Van Dyne, executive director of SEEM. He added, “’School of’ gives the center the educational flavor that denotes training and education. ‘Environmental’ ties the center to its founding in the fields of environmental, safety and health training and education. And, ‘emergency management’ is the new element, incorporating the programs offered within the Center for Terrorism Preparedness into the mix.”

The School of Environmental and Emergency Management is a multifaceted education, training and information-transfer program that focuses on environmental, occupational safety and health and emergency management issues. SEEM’s mission is to develop and deliver effective and practical educational, training and consulting programs across the United States through a combination of the following: practical, hands-on training; varied instructional techniques in classroom, lab and field settings; state-of-the-art, distance-learning opportunities; and internships and cooperative work experience programs.

Future plans for SEEM include the development and delivery of a master’s level certificate in disaster management, which will begin in June of 2003. To receive the certificate, students will need to complete four master’s level courses, including: Principles of Emergency and Disaster Management, Vulnerability and Threat Assessment, Incident Command and Response Operations and Business Recovery and Asset Protection.

Other future plans include offering more disaster management courses at the bachelor’s level, as well as a collaborative effort with other UF undergraduate and graduate programs, such as offering school violence threat assessment courses for education majors and intelligence gathering, asset protection and other law enforcement oriented courses for criminal justice administration majors.

The School of Environmental and Emergency Management also plans to work on a collaborative basis with other educational institutions. One successful relationship that already exists is with the Medical College of Ohio (MCO), where one of SEEM’s disaster management courses designed for the public health/medical community is already a requirement for all of MCO’s third and fourth year medical students.

The University of Findlay is virtually the only institution in the United States that integrates environmental safety and health training, academic degree programs and a nationally recognized Center for Terrorism Preparedness.

For more information, visit our Web site at http://seem.findlay.edu/.