Policy for Catastrophic Events or Emergency Disruptions

Policy Statement

This Global Christian University policy addresses circumstances where regular operations, classes, and administration are disrupted by the occurrence of a catastrophic event or emergency situation. The scope of this policy includes all operations, staff, faculty, and students.

A Catastrophic Event is a natural or man-made incident, where substantial damage or loss is the result, and that damage requires major financial resources to recover (earthquake, wildfire, pandemic, flood, or other incidents).

Policy Procedures

In case of catastrophic events or emergency situations, the President’s Office will declare a state of emergency and take appropriate actions, including the constitution of an Emergency Response Committee. Global Christian University will provide swift and accurate information to all its students, faculty, and staff via reliable channels, including email and the university website. GCU will adopt a flexible approach and will prioritize the enablement of the university’s essential operations to be conducted by staff and faculty from wherever they are located. Faculty, staff, and students may be encouraged to work from home until the emergency event has abated and will be provided with periodic updates. Alternative work arrangements may be approved by an employee’s supervisor in appropriate cases while the emergency event is occurring.

In the event of a pandemic or like event, the university may direct all employees and students to leave any in-person campus and continue educating and administering from home. Students will be expected to continue attending classes remotely, though most classes are already delivered via distance learning technology; in-person classes will be moved to a distance learning modality during the span of the event and the recovery period. 

In the case of an emergency or catastrophic event that requires students and personnel to be away from campus, the university will waive on-campus attendance requirements, and students will be expected to access their classes via the online Learning Management System (LMS). Students, staff, and faculty will be notified in such cases via email and notifications on the university website. The rules concerning absences due to illness will still be followed, and in case of any other absence, students must notify their course instructors and the Registrar’s Office by email in advance of the absence, or as soon as practicable thereafter. The university’s normal rules and expectations regarding academic work to be performed by students will continue to apply unless specific exceptions have been announced by the Registrar’s Office.

In case a student is unable to attend classes or perform other academic tasks due to an emergency, the student should communicate those circumstances with the necessary evidence to the instructor of the course as soon as practicable. The instructor will assess the situation and assign alternative work or make up assignments on a case-by-case basis.

Course or Program Discontinuities

In the rare instance, due to a catastrophic event, GCU is unable to continue delivering course instruction in the originally determined delivery modality (in-person), GCU commits to one or more of the following actions, at the administration’s discretion:

• Deliver all course instructions and materials through an alternative modality (online education, for example)
• Provide transfer credit assistance to other institution(s) or to other programs at GCU.
• Provide a financial refund, to the extent that no other alternative instruction is available at GCU.

Should a total program discontinuance occur, the Administration will notify students and provide available options. In accordance with institutional accreditation requirements, a teach-out plan will be submitted to the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) prior to its implementation.

Other Policies

Emergency personnel and other designated staff will be expected to report to work at the university campus and conduct their normal work tasks in accordance with university directions.

The ordinary university rules regarding leave will continue to apply unless specific exceptions have been communicated by the appropriate official. Personnel are expected to work from campus facilities after the emergency event has abated or upon the directive of the university administration. In all cases, employees are expected to communicate regularly with their supervisors and take directions about where they may work from and what tasks must be accomplished within particular timelines. Employees who are not able to perform their functions due to the emergency must communicate those facts promptly to their supervisors and seek their approval for alternative arrangements. Employees may be able to request sick leave or other leave in such circumstances.

Specific Policies:

Permanent Records are stored redundantly in cloud backup sites and on physical storage devices. In the event of cloud storage failure, the physical backups will be used to restore data. In the event the physical storage devices are lost due to the event, then new storage devices will be filled from the cloud storage. Permanent Academic Records will be maintained in all instances.

Student Refunds, in the unlikely event that whole courses must be cancelled, will be given, in full, for the courses that the university cancelled. Student-initiated withdrawals from courses, even if due to the event, will be governed by the regular Refund Policy found in the University Catalog and Student Manual.

The university’s Emergency Response Committee may designate certain personnel to be primarily responsible for conducting essential functions. In such cases, the personnel will perform such functions even if they are outside the scope of their normal duties and fulfill instructions as directed.

This Policy was reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees annually.

This Policy is maintained by the President and the President’s Office, which is responsible for its administration.

This policy is distributed via the university website at https://globalcu.edu/policies