Emergency Disaster Management

The primary goal of social justice in emergency management is to ensure all groups have the opportunity to receive resources equitably. This course explores how issues like terrorism become racialized and explores an overview of inequity in how agencies and people respond to natural disasters.    

This course focuses on the role of local, state, and federal government in a time of disaster. Students will study key legislation related to disasters, disaster management, law enforcement, and how that legislation has impacted the profession.

This course prepares students to be leaders in their community during a natural disaster. Students will learn how to improve their community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a natural disaster. After completion of this course, students will have a better understanding of natural disasters, risk assessment, emergency management procedures and operations, and vulnerability factors that may exist in their local community.

Students learn the history, methods, and philosophy of terrorism, with an emphasis on how governments and law enforcement agencies plan and respond to terrorism and cyberthreats. Students read case studies that explore terrorist activities and the implications for emergency response.

The goal of this course is to prepare students to create and implement their own emergency management simulation. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe the benefits of exercise management, define the parameters and process of the simulation, describe the different phases of exercise management such as planning, conduct, post-review, and explain how to select the appropriate exercise

This course introduces students to the United States criminal justice system in the age of globalization. Students will develop a general understanding of the criminal justice system’s response to crime and how the processes of globalization is changing it. It is an introductory overview of local, state, and federal law enforcement, judicial and corrections agencies, and the criminal justice system processes. Special attention will be paid to the role criminal justice agents play in environmental issues and problems. The course prepares students to take more advanced courses that address the specific components of environmental criminal justice.

This survey course addresses not only the creation and management of our natural and wildlife resources on federal public lands, with a focus on the National Parks, National Forests, and the National Resource Lands (Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regulated lands), but also including the National Wildlife Refuge System and the National Wilderness Preservation System. Students will learn how interest groups, citizens, and the courts influence the management of natural resources on these lands. After taking the class, students should be familiar with the major public land legislation such as the National Forest and National Park “Organic Acts” and the Wilderness Act; as well as laws that affect our public lands, but apply more broadly, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Through class work and their papers, students will also be familiar with different perspectives on some of the most important current issues facing our public lands.

Organizations that produce, import, process, handle, or release chemical substances are required by Federal law to comply with many regulatory programs that are implemented by the EPA. This course introduces students to the Federal laws and regulations that apply to environmental compliance and regulation. Upon completion of this course, students develop an understanding of the regulatory process, how specific materials and activities are regulated, and develop the skills necessary for applying EPA’s standards to operations.