What I Wish I’d Known When I Started:
Higher Education Risk Management Lore
SEPTEMBER 2014
Gallagher Higher
Education Practice
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door…
—Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
Disclaimer
The information in this document is intended
to help administrators at educational institutions
understand and manage risk. It is offered to the
higher education community as general advice. It is
not intended as professional guidance on particular
situations involving risk, insurance, or legal issues.
Arthur J. Gallagher does not provide legal advice,
as we are not licensed to do so. Neither this document, nor any issues for consideration associated
with it, is a substitute for legal advice. Every circumstance and institution is different. Each institution
must, therefore, consult its own legal counsel or
other qualified professional for advice on the legal
implications related to these issues and determine
for itself what steps are appropriate for personal or
institutional assistance.
This monograph does not create, and is not intended
to create, a standard of care or a legal duty of any
kind. The failure to implement any item from the
proposed guidelines and checklists is not intended
as, and should not be construed as, evidence of
negligence or wrongdoing of any kind. Checklists
and templates are merely aspirational and illustrative. The items listed are by no means required or
recommended in all circumstances. Any appendices
contained in this document were obtained from
sources that, to the best of the writers’ knowledge,
are authentic and reliable.
© 2014 Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
“Once Upon a Time...”
::::::::
Preface ::::::::
In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore
of priests and people... these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of
the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual.
—William Robertson Smith, author and Encyclopedia Britannica editor
The 2014 Arthur J. Gallagher Think Tank for
Higher Education Risk Management explored what
it takes to be successful in higher education risk
management.
We identified several skilled risk managers (many,
many others could have joined us), who graciously
agreed to assist us, gathered them together for a
couple of days, rolled up our sleeves, took notes, and
asked them the secrets to their success. These wise
contributors made up a true “think” tank—they
shared with us their background, their training,
their greatest successes—and some signal failures.
They told us what they read, what they pay attention to, and what they wish they had known when
they started this job. They explained their perspectives on the sometimes arcane, sometimes dogmatic,
sometimes nearly religious aspects of compliance,
loss control, insurance, typical issues, common and
uncommon solutions (and some that were truly inspired), and many other aspects of their professional
management of risk.
In short: they shared their experiences—and they
told us stories.
True stories; amazing stories; terrifying stories;
hilarious stories. (And some extremely memorable
ones that simply cannot be shared in a “family publication.”) Mostly they agreed to let us tell you those
stories—sometimes with attribution, sometimes
warning us against it. Along with the stories, they
gave recommendations—many recommendations on
training, on skills, on best practices, on things one
should do if one were planning to be a risk manager
in higher education.
So that is the gift they gave to us, and we give to
you: a summary of just a portion of years of wisdom,
knowledge, stories—the lore of higher education risk
management. This paper is not meant to provide
an answer, but merely the beginnings of an answer,
perhaps, to the open question, “So—you want to be
a higher ed risk manager?” The paper is a to-do list,
as well as a “not-to-do” list: a collection of advice,
Gallagher Higher Education Practice
1
knowledge, wisdom, and stories—what we all wish
we had known earlier in our careers.
Take this lore; savor it. Follow the good advice and
avoid the mistakes—it’s a lot cheaper and easier to
learn vicariously than by making the same errors
yourself. May this be helpful to you—you may wish,
as we did, that you had known it earlier, but we got
it to you as soon as we could. Feel free to suggest additional stories, advice, and lore—this is an ongoing
story, as is all accumulation of lore. Enjoy this part
of it, and add your own chapters to the tale.
Welcome to the story.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
This publication would not have been possible
without the participation and commitment of each
member of the Think Tank—leaders in higher education risk management and insurance from several
institutions, with well over 200 years of combined
experience in higher ed risk management present at
the Think Tank alone:
• Chauncey
Fagler, ARM-P, Executive Director,
Florida College System Risk Management
Consortium
• Luke
Figora, Executive Director, Risk Management,
University of Chicago
• Troy
Harris, Assistant Vice President for
Institutional Resilience, Westmont College
• Ellen
S. Holland, DRM, ARM, MSF;
Administrator, Public Universities Risk
Management & Insurance Trust/PURMIT
• Craig
McAllister, Director, Risk Management
& Insurance, Cornell University
• Doug
Moore, University Risk Manager,
Loyola Marymount University
•
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Margaret Tungseth, CPA, MBA, DRM,
Senior Vice President for Business, Finance
and Technology, Hamline University
Gallagher Higher Education Practice
• Ruth
Unks, ARM, DRM, CRM, Director of
Enterprise Risk Management, Maricopa County
Community College District
• Joe
Yohe, Associate Vice President,
Risk Management, Georgetown University
Additional contributors (with additional hundreds
of years of combined experience):
• Allan
F. Brooks, MA, CPCU, ARM, ARe, AU,
Director, Risk Management, Chapman University
• Elizabeth
J. Carmichael, Director of Compliance
and Risk Management, Five Colleges Incorporated
• Elizabeth
Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
• Tom
Clayton, Director: Insurance and Risk
Management, Johnson County Community College
• Michael
Gansor, CPCU, AAI, ARM, AU, AFSB,
Risk Manager, West Virginia University
• Kathy
E. Hargis, MBA, Director, Office of Risk
Management, Lipscomb University
• David
Pajak, MBA, DRM, ARM, Director,
Risk Management and Chief Emergency
Management Officer, Syracuse University
• Barbara
Schatzer, Senior Director,
Risk Management, University of San Diego
Representatives of Arthur J. Gallagher
Risk Management Services, Inc.
• John
McLaughlin, Managing Director,
Higher Education Practice
• Vincent
Morris, Executive Director,
Higher Education Practice
(document general editor)
• John
E. Watson, Executive Director,
Higher Education Practice
It is our desire and hope that you will find this
document interesting, entertaining, thoughtprovoking—and, ultimately, helpful.
John McLaughlin
Managing Director
Higher Education Practice
Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice
3
::::::::
Table of Contents ::::::::
Introduction: The Storytellers............................................................................................................................................... 5
“This Is My Best”: Success Stories in Higher Education Risk Management...................................... 17
How to Play the Game—and Win........................................................................................................................ 17
Home Runs........................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Base Hits.................................................................................................................................................................................. 21
“That Was The Absolute Worst!”: Things That Went Really, Really Wrong.............................. 23
“Lessons (I Wish I Had) Learned (Sooner)”............................................................................................................ 25
“Every New Risk Manager Should…”: Writing Your Own Good Story............................................. 29
Ten Things to Read.......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Ten Things to Do.............................................................................................................................................................. 30
Essential References for Higher Education Risk Management................................................................... 33
Books......................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
Subscriptions........................................................................................................................................................................ 34
Associations and Memberships................................................................................................................................ 34
Mentoring Relationships.............................................................................................................................................. 35
Other References................................................................................................................................................................ 35
Appendices...................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
A. Best Habits for Each Stage of Risk Management................................................................................ 37
B. Helpful Technologies.............................................................................................................................................. 38
1. Productivity............................................................................................................................................................38
2. Presentation Software..................................................................................................................................... 38
3. Collaboration....................................................................................................................................................... 38
4. Search........................................................................................................................................................................ 38
5. Risk-Management-Specific Tools........................................................................................................... 38
6. Other Tools........................................................................................................................................................... 39
C. Death of a Student: Best Practices................................................................................................................ 40
::::::::
Introduction: The Storytellers
::::::::
Sometimes you just gotta say, “What the… heck!”
—Joel Goodman’s father, paraphrasing a frequently
repeated phrase in the 1983 movie Risky Business
Risky Business
Beyond the oft-cited title of an ’80s movie starring
a naïve and oh-so-very-young Tom Cruise dancing
in his underwear, “risky business” is well known to
be difficult. Practitioners of the business of risk tend
to swim in murky waters, seeking—and creating—a
firm place to stand. These intrepid “Risk Managers,” unlike Mr. Cruise, do not tend to be young,
and they certainly do not tend to be naïve. A brief
glance at the attendees at the annual University Risk
Management and Insurance (URMIA) conference
shows a tendency toward grey hairs that accompany
contact often seem to do things that make us, too,
say, “What the… heck!” It is not a boring job.
To get our conversation started, we asked a few questions to our Think Tank participants—and they were
not shy about giving answers, which fortunately did
not stop at “what the heck?”! (The astute observer
will notice that, while most of the comments in this
paper have names attached, not quite all the stories
and thoughts were for public attribution…) We
suggest you read this document with your favorite
red pen or blue pencil in hand, checking things off,
It will take two years to figure out what you’re supposed to do; five years and more
to know why and to do it well.
the trust, wisdom, and responsibility accorded risk
managers. Not many young and inexperienced
people are trusted with the management of risk for
an entire organization. (Perhaps some of these grey
hairs are actually generated by the stress and challenges of the job; at any rate, through the over forty
otherwise enjoyable and thought-provoking annual
URMIA conferences held to date, it seems there has
been very little dancing in underwear.)
striking out, circling, critiquing, adding marginalia,
and otherwise interacting with us yourself. It is our
hope you find some suggestions here that will help
you succeed, thus making our best into your best,
and adding your own chapter to the Book of Higher
Education Risk Management Lore.
But as a wise man once said, “No one was born
knowing it!” This is true of anything we learn in
life, and especially true of particular and specialized
knowledge—and the wisdom required to apply that
knowledge. Those who engage in, and thrive on, the
business of risk have acquired an impressive set of
tools that promote success. No matter our experience, however, the disparate and original populations of students, faculty, administrators, visitors
and others with whom we are thrust into regular
Ellen S. Holland: Prior to moving to risk management from corporate sales, I was in training about
80% of the time in my first year, learning about
“features and benefits” of the products I was selling
in the agricultural chemical market. This involved
visits to farms, fertilizer dealerships, etc. At that
time, only about 5% of sales reps were women.
Upon meeting one customer he said to me frankly,
“I don’t like your company; I don’t like your products; and I hate woman reps!” I responded, “That’s
What initial advice would you give to new
incoming higher education risk managers?
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
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fine, but I’ll stop by again soon just to check in.”
On a happy note, about two or three years of patience and steady success made him one of the largest dealers of our products. But I learned that to be
“Don’t send that e-mail until you’ve had a
night’s sleep…”
truly successful, I needed to simply ask about their
business: “Tell me your story!” At my first university
risk management job, some students pulled a safety
shower on a floor above a research lab. It ran for
eight hours unattended. Researchers lost six years
of research due to the flood. So when I met the
researchers, I asked the same question I asked when
selling ag products—“What is your story?” When I
heard their stories, and how proud they were of their
ones—build your reputation based on some early
wins. The big issues will still be waiting for you.
Craig McAllister: It really is about others
telling their own story. Success in this business
is achieved by helping others get to their goals.
So I advise you to help other people understand
they own the risks and the rewards of their activities.
Help them make the decisions and own the risks
themselves.
Joe Yohe: Engagement is a necessity. We are acting
in an advisory role; we can’t usually mandate that
anyone do much of anything. Working with others
is vital. “Ownership” of risks resides in others
(e.g., safety programs). You must have extensions
of yourself on campus, as Risk Management can’t
manage everything. Learn how to help other people
succeed—teach them how to identify and manage their
own risks, and their success will be yours too.
Stay positive! Have a supporter, a “human mascot” who will keep you grounded and calm!
work, I could then facilitate assistance for them—
bring people together to coordinate the loss recovery.
This works for Business Continuity Planning and
other things too. So my first piece of advice for
success is: Get to know people by listening to their
stories. When they trust that you understand them,
they will trust you to advise them.
John Watson: Pepperdine University received a
wrongful death lawsuit over a fire on donated land,
with accusations that the land had not been properly
cleared of hillside brush. I was hired in response to
the institution recognizing the need for someone to
truly manage the University’s risks, including that
claim. It turned out to be a long and complicated
claim. But it had a hidden benefit: as risk manager,
for the first two and a half years all I had to say was
“Baldwin Hills Fire” and people would listen to me!
The lesson I learned: Get an early success; find lowhanging fruit and pick it, then educate people about
what else success means. Don’t wait for the big-bang,
multi-year process to play out. Look for the easy
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Chauncey Fagler: Focus on the end game. The list of
things to do today may seem endless, but staying
focused will have a much longer-term payoff down
the road. You will need assistance from others; asking for help shows maturity and confidence. This
is not a profession in which success comes easily or
quickly. Plan for the long haul as the immediate fires
are being addressed.
Margaret Tungseth: Obtain support from above for
your efforts. Success will occur more often when “the
top” has bought in. It is one thing to make suggestions for change yourself. However, being able to say,
“I was tasked to do this by the VP/President” etc.
tends to result in buy-in from other departments!
Make sure you give options and make a recommendation (“here are three ways you could manage this;
I might suggest #2”), but leave the choice to those
owning the risk.
Ruth Unks: Be a good explainer and teacher. Risk
management can be complicated. When we try to
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
describe risks and treatments of them to others, elements of our conversation may be complex and/or
sophisticated. But at least we should delineate them,
briefly describe them, and suggest our audience seek
resources and mentors to help them through it.
Troy Harris: I have learned that “getting to yes” is
the critical way to frame our work. Also, we have
to ensure that people who are hiring Risk Management types “pick well”—dealing with the reality of
nuance is part of our task, and we must pick people
who are not troubled by gray areas. Seek and get good
outcomes; don’t “just say no.”
Joe: Look for opportunities to advance Risk Management. Take those bad events and turn them! As
Rahm Emanuel used to say as Obama’s Chief of
Staff, “Never let a good crisis go to waste!”
Chauncey: Collect and use data! In higher ed we
are data junkies. With solid data one may be able
to “trick” people into using Enterprise Risk Management. Risk owners and departments will want to
make the changes themselves when they see positive
results.
Ruth: Push that data out regularly! If you have been
collecting facts and information that is helpful for
decision making, don’t keep it in Risk Management;
get it out there! Let campuses, departments, etc.
compete with each other to manage risk well!
John McLaughlin: Make sure you prepare and
continually enhance your institutional story.
Develop and refine your institution’s risk management story—lessons learned and changes to risk
management practices show a strong commitment
to being a good risk partner. The underwriting
business has a classic 80-20 paradigm: 80% of
clients have positive loss experience. The accounts
that can demonstrate a strong risk management
culture always seem to find themselves on the positive side of average rate increases or decreases. Over
the years, this results in huge cost savings. Setting up
a good institutional story (e.g., Westmont’s amazing
emergency preparedness) and sharing it with your
broker makes it easier for the broker to negotiate
with underwriters.
What I have learned through the years
Ellen: Stalking Situation
This profession evolves and will continue to
evolve; new forms of risk arise constantly. They
don’t tell you these things when you accept the
job—there is no chapter in the ARM manuals
on ‘stalking’!
One day I received a call from campus security, saying, “Be at a meeting in 30 minutes…”
Upon arrival to meet with our incident response team, the Dean’s office involved noted
they had been monitoring a certain individual
for six months and it was now beyond their
control. At this point, the person had made
serious threats against a female student. We
were able to get in contact with John Nicoletti,
a clinical/police psychologist specializing in
school violence. When he analyzed the situation
he stated to our team, “You’re probably within
24 hours of a murder-suicide situation” with
this individual. The team then acted to diffuse
the situation through his advice.
At that time, a team member and I met with
the female potential victim, telling her, “We’ve
been advised that you should not go home tonight. We will pay for a hotel room for you, as
it may not be safe for you to go home”—all the
while thinking that this was not something we
had trained for at that time, especially considering that the potential victim was a 17-year-old
law student.
Campus security escorted the threatening
stalker off campus. The following day he was
caught with a stolen ladder, climbing into her
2nd story apartment, presumably to attack her!
I learned the valuable lesson: ‘Trust your gut!’
We just had a bad feeling about this, and removing her from the situation, while somewhat
controversial, was validated by his act the next
day. We all agreed we were glad to have made
that decision.
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Ellen: Suggest alternatives that might help your
internal “clients” achieve their goals with lower
risk. Note: this requires thought, creativity, and
patience—it can take years!
How do you see higher education risk
management changing? What should
we be looking toward next?
Chauncey: As our profession changes, new skills are
needed. We need stronger and stronger finance skills
as risks have greater and greater finance implications—and along with finance skills, communication skills are paramount.
Ellen: Some younger people are coming in with
greater technical abilities—even though they haven’t
experienced some valuable lessons time brings. I
think of several things as “recent” lessons: risks of
dangerously hazardous weather (Hurricane Katrina);
risks of dangerous people (Columbine school shooting, or Virginia Tech)—but these are long enough
ago that young people coming into the profession
have not experienced them any more than the 1998
hard market, or the 2008 crash. What’s next? What
lessons will teach them?
“I love it when the students are here—and I love
it when they are gone!”
Ruth: The rise of the opportunity aspect of Enterprise Risk Management is helping with the “getting
to yes” concept. Risk Management can and should
lose its reputation as the “Department of No.”
Troy: We must learn to sell ourselves as “value providers.” At Westmont our Risk Management mission
is encapsulated very simply and clearly: “Keeping
our resources applied to our mission.” Even our
faculty tend to resonate with that idea. They don’t
want their departmental budgets frittered away on
losses and claims, etc. We help them see that we’re
on their side.
Chauncey: We have to be opportunistic, seizing the
moments that offer needed change. We had a foreign
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travel question arise: “Do we need coverage for
this?” The question caused great conversation among
administrators. It was an opportunity to show value!
For instance, we can point out that “a Florida university has great programs and policies, and we intend to mimic this system-wide”—and the moment
provides the opportunity to introduce the change.
What I have learned through the years
Risk Consulting
Elizabeth Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
Health sciences school administrators often ask
our office to negotiate the wording in affiliation agreements for visiting students, residents
and fellows. When our first question is, “Do
you have a particular interest in hosting this
person?” we often save time because the administrator says “no.” The administrator would
otherwise have let us negotiate contract terms at
length for a visiting student the University had
no interest in hosting.
On occasion, faculty members or administrators with whom I have never worked before
have approached me for help in solving a
potential risk problem. Despite my giving them
a supportive and responsive answer, sometimes
including a range of options to reduce the risk,
they kept pursuing their questions from other
angles, to the point where I had to ask myself
what was really going on. In most of these cases,
the inquirers were omitting some quite important facts. They didn’t want to take a chance on
being advised not to undertake an activity, but
wanted to be able to say “Risk Management approved” in case things went badly. I learned to
trust my gut in these types of conversations and
to expand the conversation to include knowledgeable others (like the administrator, Chair or
Dean) or, when it seemed really odd, to document the conversation and share the document
with the inquirer.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
John M.: Understand your true “Total Cost of Risk.”
When Gallagher was initially hired by the University
of Colorado, Risk Management was handled by a
number of different departments, and the University
engaged a variety of outside vendors to help manage
risk. Careful identification of internal and external
risk management costs revealed an opportunity to
consolidate and strengthen internal risk management operations, improve internal risk practices,
and reduce reliance on outside vendors. While risk
management salaries and expenses increased, loss
costs and premiums dropped, saving the University
multiple millions over the years. Make a concerted
effort to understand your institution’s true total cost
of risk, and think long-term about the ROI on your
risk management initiatives.
What I have learned through the years
Good Housekeeping
Elizabeth Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
We have a lot of affiliated 501(c)(3) corporations, including our captive insurance company. It’s important to manage them with best
corporate practices, including business planning, financial and, if applicable, regulatory
reporting, periodic risk assessment, compliance
management and communication strategy. This
not only protects the corporate veil, but gives
the parent justified confidence in the integrity
and usefulness of the corporation. The same
People will “answer-shop” until they hear what they want. Risk managers need to be aware of that.
How many times have you heard, “Well, Risk Management said we couldn’t do that!”?
Ruth: The reputation of risk management, when it
is done right, is developing into a “can-do,” all-purpose
utility player. I have been assigned to stray projects:
“Ruth—can you handle this project?” (Do the rest
of you have the same experience?) Perhaps it is “the
curse of being effective”—we end up with projects
not typically under the scope of Risk Management.
For example, at Maricopa a project called “Safe
Place” sprang up. It assists at-risk, homeless youth
who come to our campuses saying, “I need help”
and are directed to shelters, etc. The Chancellor
wanted our campus(es) to be trained on how to help
such kids.. Risk Management was asked to do a risk
assessment of this project, but upon filing the report,
we were asked to implement the whole project!
Chauncey: Risk management is really a lot of
marketing! Work with the risk management staff
and risk owners to develop confidence in their
communications with various college personnel,
such as business officers, department heads, etc. to
share trends, issues and results. Call four that are
doing well—and three that are not doing well—
every week! A big opportunity in our jobs is to
market to others what risk management is and how
we can best share in the results and successes.
practices may not be technically required for
the institution’s risk management office itself,
but if practiced, the consistency will most likely
result in the same trust and confidence.
Craig: Higher education itself is changing, and we
need to pay attention and plan to adapt. The model
of Cornell originally was “any person, any study,”
“Our policy on workplace violence included a list
of prohibited acts. ‘Commit suicide’ on campus
was on the list. When presented to the faculty
council, they bridled and claimed they had the
‘academic freedom’ to commit suicide wherever
they wanted!”
but in recent years we have had to drop majors and
ally with other schools to offer programs. Where is
the bang for the buck in certain majors?
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Margaret: Do you think we’re headed for something
like the European Bologna process for educational
outcomes? [See http://www.ehea.info for more
information.]
John M.: A unified outcomes-based curriculum like
the Bologna process still seems to me to be a ways
off in the U.S. But some changes in verified educational outcomes may be needed.
Luke: At the University of Chicago, Risk Management is moving toward more of a Treasury function
while retaining those core operational risk management objectives. Operational risk and spending on
insurance (compared with true risk tolerance, all the
way up to the endowment level) may provide some
savings via self-insurance. Treasury and Financial
Services are together with Risk Management, and
Compliance and Internal Audit are the third leg.
have catastrophic limits only—how high can we take
our retentions? Where will the additional cash come
from to pay losses? Risk management, along with
our parent institutions, seems to have some hard
choices facing us in the near future.
Ruth: Higher Education is a business. One of my
schools was considering buying part of a radio
station. We need to look beyond the traditional
academic exposures. Institutions have to be creative
about selling services other than “just” education.
We just added a new college to our existing ten:
Maricopa Corporate College, established in 2013.
Its purpose is to assist local businesses with workforce development and training. That is a new
revenue source: selling employee time to local
businesses. The employees provide subject matter
expertise. Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio
was a pioneer in this area.
Never forget that higher education is run (at least for now, and for the foreseeable future) as a
business. As such, the role of risk management will be moving to more strategy than managing
events. Risk Management is now starting to deal with acquisitions, medical networks, etc.
Vince Morris: Risk Management is most effective
when the risk manager has an intimate knowledge of
the people and the processes at an institution. This
is especially true when ERM is involved—integrating operational with strategic risks, and making sure
there is a cohesive channel to the appropriate Board
oversight committee, requires specific institutional
knowledge. But, like accounting and purchasing
functions, risk management’s main tasks are scalable,
which means it could be a function that is shared
with other institutions. That might be how extreme
budget pressures are alleviated at some institutions.
Margaret: Understand the “uniqueness” of your
individual institution—and also how it is not unique.
Private institutions all think they are so unique and
special, but that is now changing under financial
pressures. There are lots of conversations among
CFOs about sharing services. Can Payroll be shared?
IT? Accounting? Purchasing? Risk Management…?!?!
John M.: Insurance will write different forms
soon—multiple-year policies with standard-deviation expectations are coming soon. Clients have
been overly conservative when it comes to financial
capacity. They are buying too many policies, with
SIRs that are too low.
What are some of the top issues on which a
new higher education risk manager may need
to focus attention right away? What are your
success stories and(/or!) advice on these?
Craig: SIRs that are too low? Maybe. But our endowment’s output is already spoken for. We already
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Joe: A Central Service Model may indeed be coming.
It seems to be a good fit with Enterprise Risk Management. A unified look at risks yields central ways
to manage them.
1. Workers’ Compensation
Ruth: We found that moving workers’ compensation administration from Human Resources to
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
Risk Management saved significant dollars. The
crucial thing that persuaded HR was that they
were taking on additional responsibilities and
didn’t have the time nor resources to fully manage
our workers’ compensation program. Once Risk
Management took over the workers’ compensation program, we were able to examine trends and
address loss control issues and get employees back
to work sooner.
John W.: Risk Management was asked to assist
Human Resources with Workers’ Comp when the
x-mod grew greater than 1.0. On review of the
loss run we determined that 95% of the dollars
were within one VP’s area that included all the
trades employees. Unfortunately, that VP tended
to perceive safety and training as a time-waster for
his staff. Since this VP wasn’t receptive to offers
for assistance in reducing the claims frequency
and severity, we put together a loss statement
showing dollar savings by Vice President, and
presented it to a meeting with all the VPs. It was
obvious to the other VPs that there was a real potential for savings that they could use to increase
their own budgets. We left that meeting with a
commitment from the one VP to reduce his cost
for workers’ compensation by partnering with
HR and Risk Management to improve his employees’ ownership of their own safety. Eventually
this VP became a strong advocate for workplace
safety, including facilitating a series of train-thetrainers classes for his managers. As a result, we
were able to reduce the mod down to 0.45!
Doug Moore: We were able to make an impact
when we showed Facilities the actual cost of
workers’ compensation losses. We had data on
temp workers, on lost days, and on lack of productivity. We showed them the pyramid of losses,
which represented their true cost of risk, and we
were able to effect lasting institutional changes.
2. International Travel
Joe: International travel and program decisions
are both common and often difficult. Assessing
risks associated with international initiatives is
critical, especially when it involves a significant
Echoes from Outside the Tank:
Specific Success Stories
International Travel at Lipscomb University
Kathy Hargis, MBA, Director, Office of Risk
Management
At Lipscomb, Risk Management has built a
strong alliance with global studies and experiential learning. Risk Management conducts indepth training sessions for faculty, staff and students traveling abroad. We have also developed
a specific emergency response team to respond
to any issues that may arise during international
travel. Collaboration and sharing relevant data
is the key to building a successful relationship,
not only with this one group but the institution
as a whole. Risk Managers can impact change
and influence results much more by thinking
creatively, being intentional on strategic collaboration, and getting out from behind a desk.
It is important to be visible.
undertaking like opening a campus in a foreign
country. We recently opened a campus in Qatar.
Prior to construction beginning on our campus
there, our risk assessment process identified construction safety and worker fatalities as significant
issues in Qatar. We also learned lessons from other institutions involved in the process of setting
up campuses in the region. We were concerned
about the potential reputational impact that a
serious injury or fatality on our construction project could have and made construction safety a top
priority. The mitigation method we chose was to
assign an external dedicated safety professional to
the project to provide daily safety oversight. We
completed an 18-24 month construction process
with only minor injuries! It was our Enterprise
Risk Management committee that instigated this.
Ruth: Our radio station director asked for help.
They wanted to follow “breaking news stories”
in Mexico by sending institutional reporters and
support. They had a $1.5 million grant on the
line from Corporation for Public Broadcasting to
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
11
make this happen. We did a risk assessment and
came up with 30+ risks! The major risk: hourly
employees needing overtime! So we made them
salaried employees. We obtained “special risk”
coverage and other appropriate coverages. The
program has been a success; we are now planning
to open up a Mexico City News Bureau (Maricopa’s first permanent international location).
Doug: Often our international travel is to challenging locations. That fits with the core mission
for a Jesuit University with our emphasis on
social justice. But this results in travel to countries
with above-average risk profiles. For instance, we
had significant (unregulated) travel to Tijuana:
other international travel programs beyond study
abroad and they created risk. We also noted that
the administrator’s division had the best expertise
to help manage it from an academic standpoint.
This included the need for a process beyond students, one that included faculty, staff and other
international travel programs requiring a wider
scope of review! When the administrator engaged
in this, he led the charge for broader supervision and training for travelers, including risk
assessments for travel beyond study abroad. Our
international travel insurance included payment
for security experts to walk through itineraries
with our program leaders for high risk travel locations, as well as “pre-travel” planning. Eventually
Programs with overseas operations can confuse risk management with compliance.
Their managers may think that if the institution’s self-insurance or domestic insurance program
applies to the program, they are in compliance with local insurance laws. This is not necessarily
true and may have unpleasant consequences for the faculty on the ground.
groups were “just going”! We had calls coming in
from parents: “Why are you allowing (sending!)
my daughter/son there?” as Tijuana is notoriously
drug- and violence-plagued of late. Initially we
said, “Stop going there!” while we reviewed the
process. A cessation in the programs was controversial; people said, “This is our mission!” Eventually we were able to put some parameters around
trips. For instance, we agreed that participants
needed to spend Friday nights on the U.S. side of
border. On Saturday a.m. they would meet with
local contacts; they would use walkie-talkies in
cars; they would not go shopping in Tijuana on
Sunday a.m., etc. We said, “If you can’t follow
these criteria, you can’t do the program.” We got
to “yes,” but it took some doing. The (temporary)
cancellation took the program by surprise and it
was a frustrating time.
Ellen: As a result of Business Continuity Planning, we developed a risk assessment model for
review of all international travel (beyond study
abroad) and tied it into our emergency response
plan. It took around eight or nine months to
convince the administrator that there were many
12
the administrator formalized the process, with an
approval system—that did not always approve
every trip…!
Craig: We developed a travel registry, an online
database for tracking. It is mandatory for students, and an option for employees; about 10%
of faculty typically refuse to register! During the
Haiti earthquake, we had to call 145 departments
to ask, “Who do you have in Haiti right now?” It
turned out we had eight people there. We found
and evacuated six; two were stragglers. That experience really pointed out our need for a registry
and we sought to develop one afterwards.
We started I-TART: our International Travel
Advisory and Response Team composed of our
Vice President of International Relations, Risk
Management, General Counsel, Dean of Students, and Vice Provost. Others may be drawn in
as needed—e.g., Chief of Police, Health Center,
and Travel Safety Coordinator. In 2009 when
elections went bad in Kenya, Risk Management
at Cornell spent a lot of time moving a team to
Uganda; we even hired a mercenary team to assist!
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
We rank destination countries by risk: solo
students and students going to a “4” or “5”
country (based on the Studio Abroad database
framework) must go through special training. (In
2003–4 we tried to feed to our International SOS
system from travel agencies, but we couldn’t make
people register with the agencies we were partnering with.) Note: it is important to track holidays,
elections, etc. that may cause problems for certain
destinations!
Joe: We found a travel registry to be helpful but
sometimes cumbersome as a voluntary system.
Ours works by interfacing with travel agencies
to automatically feed traveler information into
to the database. Risk managers should embrace
technology as a tool to make it as easy as possible
to register; otherwise people just won’t do it.
The pressure is on the person at the institution
who ultimately has to answer the questions,
“Where are your people now?” “Do we have
What I have learned through the years
On Institutional Accountability
Elizabeth Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
Large and decentralized not-for-profit entities often have trouble with institutional
accountability. (For example, once a major
project budget is approved, the project owner
may feel entitled to spend every cent without
regard for potential cost-saving measures.)
Risk managers are in a great position to keep
the institution’s larger interests front and center in every discussion and decision. I think
of this as focusing on the destination of the
institution’s journey, not the mileage. The
incidental advantage is that the risk manager
may have a more knowledgeable and persuasive voice with underwriters and rating
agencies about the organization’s priorities
and principles.
people there?” Folks responsible for managing
this risk are usually eager advocates of a registration system. In order to function more effectively,
we need to move higher ed to a more corporate
mentality: mandatory registration. It doesn’t work
to say, “Do this to reduce liability to the institution!” That doesn’t matter to a typical faculty
leader, etc.
Luke Figora: The University of Chicago just
rolled out its first travel registry. We had heard
years ago from the compliance and audit committee that we needed this, but it was a real challenge
to identify ownership over the initiative. So it sat
as a to-do item, until now.
3. Board and Administrator roles
John M.: How do you handle potential interference from a Board, or top-down decisions from a
President or authority, that seem to come without
consideration of risk issues?
Craig: For one thing, VPs should not take charge
of running a crisis response/EOC. There are other
true experts for that.
Troy: There’s one area where it’s crucial for your
executives to know their true responsibilities: that
is, emergency response. We provide them with a
list of “Policy Group Functions” (a NIMS term)
to help provide clarity on the strategic and policy
issues that are truly where their greatest value is
contributed in the response.
John M.: But the Board does have responsibility
for reputational issues, and operational issues
can affect those. How can the Board “stay out
of the weeds” when their own jobs are also
involved?
Chauncey: Use of excellent reporting, such as a
balanced scorecard system, may help. We use a
“3-3” report (showing the last three years’ activity, along with the next three years’ plan), which
can enable a Board to see the value of a program,
and keep them comfortable with Enterprise Risk
Management processes.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
13
Ellen: A balanced scorecard can help you “stay
honest” with the structure—the Board or key
colleagues will ask questions and compare
against prior years. It’s great when the Board is
that engaged!
Vince: Appropriate vertical tie-in, with operations reporting appropriately up to a Board
member or committee providing oversight, is
one of the principle aspects of successful Enterprise Risk Management.
the group realized one of the consultants was
seriously impaired. It was necessary for this
“professional” to stay in the vehicle and not
attend interviews.
Troy: This quote helps me with HR issues: “I am
100% responsible for myself; this includes loving
them, caring for them, coaching, etc. But I am
0% responsible for someone else: their reactions,
their choices, their outcomes, etc.”
Ruth: In cases of perceived Board interference,
I would proceed directly to my supervisor
and report it. Here it is important to have
a process.
“One director needed to be fired for several
years. No one had the courage to do it. I did
so but it took three days for him to get the
message—he thought we were negotiating! In
the long run it was better for him and better for
the organization.”
Chauncey: Yes, this happens periodically,
but we have a process in place to prevent and
manage it.
“I hired an outside vendor for a project. After
extensive vetting, search, contract negotiations,
I had to fire an Administrative Assistant who stole. She threw herself at my legs, clung to me and
said she had kids and an unemployed husband… it was a hard time.
Luke: In the higher education world, the topic
of minority-owned firms is quite sensitive.
That is highly ingrained in the civic engagement efforts of the university. It is easy for
misalignments to occur between the expectations of various stakeholders. This is an area
where Board involvement might likely take
place, and we should make sure to use firm and
just processes on which we agree.
4. Hiring and Employment
Joe: An IT project required us to use consultants. During the drive to another campus,
“I had a vendor who I introduced to my boss—
and the vendor got very, very sloppy drunk at
the lunch. That didn’t sit well with my boss.”
14
“There was an instance I know of where a
risk manager, in the normal course of business, moved the institutional business from
one insurance broker to another. Unfortunately, an institutional Board member
involved in the losing side of the account
wrote a scathing letter to the CFO, a letter
that contained accusations of racism and
kickbacks involving the risk manager. The
CFO called the risk manager into a meeting, where the CFO asked point blank if
the allegations were true. They were not,
and the risk manager said so. Fortunately,
the CFO advised the risk manager simply
to ignore the allegations and proceed; the
CFO would deal with the situation and the
Board member.”
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
What I have learned through the years
Elizabeth Cherry: “Once position specifications are published, don’t deviate from
them. On occasion, attractive candidates
with less than the required experience or
qualifications can tempt a hiring official
to excuse some requirements. It will be a
mistake. If fully qualified candidates aren’t
found, it’s better to close the recruitment,
use what you learned to revise the job title,
specifications and/or compensation, and
then reopen with a new posting.
“It’s never been a waste of my time to
do thorough reference checks, including
claimed educational achievements.
I’ve been surprised on several occasions
that candidates lied about relatively mundane items.”
etc. we hired one—but they didn’t work out.
I had hired them, and then I had to fire them.
Worse, the follow-on consultant tends to blame
new problems on ‘previous-vendor hangover’.”
5. Claims Management
Troy: It is important to learn quickly how to
manage lawsuits in a way that applies human-ness
and compassion. We had a student who broke her
arm in a self-defense class. She lost the suit, and
appealed, repeatedly. But we kept working doggedly during the whole claim to keep the bridge
of communication open. She ended up satisfied—and even an employee of the college!—
because of the way the claim was handled.
Doug: Be proactive in claims situations! We had a
female student hurt in self-defense class: injury,
tears, a potential suit... Personal interaction and
care from Risk Management avoided a lawsuit.
On Complaints
Elizabeth Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
In well over 90% of discrimination complaints
we receive, simple failure of communications
plays a part. By delving for the root cause, we
often find opportunities for early resolution.
Even expressing regret that something happened goes a long way to closing the matter.
For example, we had a long-time, older employee who was laid off in a somewhat perfunctory
way. She filed an age discrimination complaint
and toward the end of her interview, she said
she wished it hadn’t happened like that. It turns
out she had actually been looking forward to
retirement and had been happily anticipating a retirement party at which her decades of
work would be acknowledged. Our investigator
expressed appreciation for her many contributions and asked for permission to speak with
the department manager, which was given. The
manager was surprised that a retirement party
was important to the former employee. Soon
thereafter, a party was held and a complaint was
withdrawn. Amending miscommunications or
the lack of communication, along with a sincere
apology, has also been the resolution technique
for many tort claims.
Ruth: Having access to public relations services is
wise. After a shooting on one of our campuses,
we notified administrators that PR coverage was
available through our general liability insurance
policy. Risk Management was seen as a valueadded resource for having this assistance in place.
Luke: Early engagement with claimants is critical.
Get the right person from the institution to come
alongside an injured party in support.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
15
Outside the Think Tank: Specific Success Stories
Ergonomics and Workers’ Compensation
at the University of San Diego
Barbara Schatzer, MBA, ARM, Senior Director,
Risk Management, University of San Diego
We were witnessing an increasing number of
over-use and carpal tunnel injuries to office personnel and faculty. So Risk Management partnered with the Environmental Health and Safety
office and the Procurement office to review current
practices, and outlined a proactive plan to prevent/
reduce workers’ compensation claims. Steps in the
plan include:
• Articles
on desk-related ergonomics, including simple diagrams of correct positioning, to
be included in Safety, Human Resources and
Faculty newsletters.
• The topic will be included in the Fall
Supervisor and Manager training sessions.
• All messages will emphasize that the university cares about its employees and we want to
prevent the development of injuries.
• Procurement and EH&S will establish a
showroom containing chairs, keyboard trays,
What I have learned through the years
David E. Pajak, MBA, DRM, ARM,
Director, Risk Management and
Chief Emergency Management Officer,
Syracuse University
1. Focus on the quality of one’s relationships. The underlying relationships
with colleagues, employees and service
partners should be based upon trust
and mutual respect; and
2. Have a clear mission, vision and values
and communicate them so that people
understand where they fit in and how
they will benefit.
16
keyboards and rollerball mouse samples.
These items will be available for staff and faculty to borrow for a testing period to assure their
needs are addressed.
Departments will be encouraged to wait until
new faculty and staff are onboard before ordering
new furniture. This will prevent ordering a “standard” chair that may not fit the dimensions of the
new personnel.
John M.: Early claims management is
vital—use your resources. A university
suffered a shooting on campus.
Immediate reaction to their crisis response
was very positive. The university was reluctant to trigger their crisis response coverage; the feeling was, “We have the situation
under control.” After long, late-night discussions, the team made the decision to bring
in a public relations consultant, who arrived
early the next day. She proved very helpful in
refining how the university engaged stakeholders and managed media expectations.
(Gallagher was able to work with the carrier, who stepped up to the plate and tripled
available crisis response limits; ultimately,
no claims were ever filed.) The university
continues to receive positive feedback about
their caring approach to helping the community recover from this tragic event, and
attributes this success to the assistance of the
PR consultant. Understand the resources you
have available and deploy them early.
There are many examples of serious
employment-related or other claims where
risk managers forgot to report, reported
late, etc. There is a tendency at colleges and
universities, when things are very sensitive,
to “keep it quiet.” Carriers describe tough
claims where the institution went into shutdown mode rather than rapidly involving
the carrier, as well as outside help.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
::::::::
“This Is My Best”: Success Stories
in Higher Education Risk Management
::::::::
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
—Woody Allen, as quoted in the New York Times, August 13, 1989
(“On Language: The Elysian Fields” by William Safire)
How to Play the Game—and Win
Soldiers who have been in war often describe their
experiences as hours and hours of extreme boredom,
punctuated by a few moments of intense activity,
often with great fear. To describe the 180+ minutes
of a typical baseball game, cynics who are not baseball fans might use the same language (except for the
absence of great fear—unless perhaps one is a Cubs
a percentage point off of the institution’s risk profile.
Here is a selection of these winning hits. One of
the nice things about higher education is that colleges
and universities don’t typically compete against each
other on the basis of risk management, so feel free to
swipe any or all of these bases—first, second, third
and home—for use in your own winning institutional scorebook.
We learned the game is won with solid Base Hits—small, even simple ideas that turned out really
well and shaved a bit of a percentage point off of the institution’s risk profile.
fan). Likewise, Higher Education Risk Management
is a steady business of contracts, insurance claims,
waivers, hold harmless and indemnification clauses,
and endless meetings—punctuated by moments of
intense excitement, agitation, sudden emergencies,
and advice urgently sought at the last minute and all
too often ignored. Sometimes success in such a business is difficult to define.
In a typical U.S. baseball season of 162 games over
six long months before the playoffs, the teams are
often so evenly matched that it is said “every team
will win 60 games and lose 60 games; it is what you
do with the 42 games in the middle that makes you
great or terrible.” We asked our panel about the “42
games in the middle,” the ones that you might even
win just by showing up. We learned that sometimes
there are true Home Runs in the game of higher
ed risk management, and we have a few of those
to share with you. But more often, we learned, the
game is won with solid Base Hits—small, simple
ideas that turned out really well and shaved a bit of
Home Runs
Some of our Think Tank panelists told the stories of
their own home runs:
Margaret: For me a home run was establishing
a National Incident Management System (NIMS)
response team. (See http://www.fema.gov/nationalincident-management-system/training) The President got onto her radar (from AGB?) the importance
of having an effective Emergency Response program.
Many small departments (1–2 people) needed to be
engaged in this process. Finally the President told my
boss, “This needs to get done! These are the people
who can make this happen!” and I was drafted.
It helped that a new Chief of Public Safety had recently been hired who was an EM specialist. He also
wanted to make some significant changes. Pulling
down different URMIA templates, etc. was important (as was talking at length with Larry Stephens
at Indiana University, a Risk Management veteran).
We reviewed six or seven good plans from different
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
17
schools, and ended up with a short and sweet plan
that could work.
Around the fall of 2009, we developed a working
collaborative team. We wanted our institution to be
NIMS-compliant. Most people were cooperative,
but the higher we got on the ladder, the more resistance we got to the training. Our first tabletop was a
complete disaster! But finally we got it together and
had our NIMS team.
Craig: One big home run for us was changing
“Slope Day”! At Cornell we had a long-standing
student tradition on or near the last day of classes,
involving live music—and massive consumption of
alcohol. Several attempts were made to reduce the
number of problems related to this event, which had
grown out of control, but you can’t change campus
culture overnight. When, for example, Cornell said
no kegs were allowed, students buried them ahead
of time, hid them in manholes, under couches set
on the lawn, etc. The question became, “How do we
manage the Slope?” We felt we had to do better than
just to roll over drunks and make sure they were still
breathing!
Change takes time in higher ed. But we needed control rather than a free-for-all. We began with a few
small changes: amplified music was allowed at first;
Margaret: “Cornstalk”
We had something like Cornell’s “Slope
Day” each spring on the Monday before
finals. It evolved into Cornstalk (the school’s
athletic mascot was a “CornCob”)—a big
party! It started out on a random place near
campus, then nearer, then finally on campus. The administration admitted, “This is
going to happen every year; let’s make it an
official event on the schedule.” It eventually
moved to the middle of the soccer field, with
a concert, inflatables, non-alcoholic options
(it was a dry campus), etc. The event became
something that was both fun and controlled.
18
then it was moved inside a snow fence, then inside
a chain link fence to control crowds. Eventually it
became a concert performance event; no longer were
high school students allowed. We also put a maze in
place so those over 21 couldn’t get beer as quickly,
and used armbands for identification—and further
restriction on who had been served. Overall the
event is much more in control than it used to be.
Similarly, another event called “Dragon Day” had
to be “converted” to make it sustainable also. The
university has to respond to these kinds of things,
as the students will do their thing either way.
Doug: A home run for us was consolidating disability
management and Workers’ Comp under Risk Management at USC. We identified a TPA (with Sedgwick),
built a database for managing claims, and arranged
a plan to manage payments (we used internal staff;
that involved “a lot of sitting around tables drawing
up maps of what we wanted to see”). We eventually
figured it all out through trial and error. Employees
liked it, and it worked well enough that recently we
were able to move disability back to HR.
Joe: Hospital Liability claims analysis and savings
was a nice win for us at Georgetown. Following the
divestiture of our hospital to a regional healthcare
system, Risk Management initiated a claims reconciliation project to determine if legacy claims were
allocated to the appropriate insurance policy periods.
From a management perspective, this was important
because if a claim was inadvertently placed in the
wrong policy period it could impact the calculation
of our self-insured retention. These policies had aggregate self-insured retentions for each year before
the excess was reached. We spent a considerable
amount of time arranging claims into policy years
to determine when coverage applied, which helped
us notice that loss dates were sometimes wrong. In a
short time we analyzed 250+ claims; many had been
put into the wrong policy years. By the time we were
done with proper classification of the claims, the
net gain to Georgetown was in excess of a million
dollars. And we did not have to sue our insurance
company for payment; the data was pretty straightforward and not easy to dispute. This whole exercise
reinforced for me the importance of paying attention to details and asking questions.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
Chauncey: Our health benefits funds balance
recovery is a wonderful success story for FCSRMC.
Several years ago, a gap began to develop in the
health benefits fund balance between allocations and
rising claims. The fund balance dropped below the
State of Florida’s safe harbor standard of at least two
months’ claims. Stakeholders, internal and external,
from all levels, had to be involved, and plan design changes, along with a wellness initiative, were
introduced. The 2014 fund balance of $26 million is
no less than four times the safe harbor requirements,
and our annual increases have been less than the
industry trend. Communication at every level was
essential to this turnaround.
Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
The Five College Risk Management Website
(https://www.fivecolleges.edu/riskmgmt)
Elizabeth J. Carmichael, Director of
Compliance and Risk Management, Five Colleges
Incorporated
This may sound like I am trying to cram all
of my risk management initiatives under one
big umbrella, but it’s actually the management
and communication of the initiatives that is
the most critical element, the driving element
behind the initiatives themselves. I realized
early on that all the risk management information and knowledge in the world wouldn’t do
our institutions a lot of good if it lived only in
my head and I could only convey it in limited
ways (e.g., through meetings or hard copy
documents) to our staff, faculty or students.
Communicating on these issues one-to-one
also took an enormous amount of time, and it
was clear that most communications could at
least start off as “routine” (e.g., guidelines for
a field trip). To broaden my reach and make
the best use of my time, my most effective risk
management initiative has been to develop an
in-depth web site that serves as a risk management and compliance resource and an effective
risk management communication tool.
Starting in the year 2000, with the addition
of a half-time assistant to the department
(we were formerly a department of one: me!),
I began to work on developing the Five College Risk Management Web Site. It was slow
going—we had to learn the software (and IT kept
changing the platform, which meant learning new
software) and we were also learning how the web
works—learning how to make our site interesting,
useful and accessible. One of our first initiatives was
to build the “field trips” pages, which, when completed, saved me countless hours of writing customized e-mails to faculty with instructions on field trip
risk management. I could now simply send them
to the web site, and ask them to call if they had any
further concerns or questions.
Fourteen years later we have a very robust on line
presence, which is continuing to grow and improve.
Critical initiatives that could only have been undertaken because we had the web presence include our
on-line driver credentialing program and an on-line
vehicle registration program. Our contracting policies and procedures were developed in and for a web
environment—no paper copies exist. We did the
same thing in support of international travel. We are
now developing web support and tools for students
to manage their personal risks as well as the risks for
their college clubs and community service activities,
including an on-line waiver process. The compliance
site has been under development since 2011, and
work is still ongoing. In conjunction with that, our
team (Megan Valcour, Stacie Kroll, and me) are
developing interactive training elements that will support our compliance and risk management process.
I think what I love most about integrating the web
into our risk management work is that we always
have something new to consider, develop and adopt
for our constituents.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
19
Consortium and Captive
at Five Colleges Incorporated
Elizabeth J. Carmichael, Director of
Compliance and Risk Management,
Five Colleges Incorporated
The biggest “home run” that our four
colleges hit (really, I’d call it a “grand slam”)
was their decision to organize and manage their insurance and risk management
through the consortium; i.e., to acquire professional risk management for the colleges.
All of our wins have flowed out of that
decision, including the formation of our
captive insurance company, Collegiate
Catalyst Fund, to help us better manage
high level deductibles (another home run)
and any number of singles and doubles
(such as the driver credentialing program).
Ruth: Implementing ERM successfully at Maricopa
was a home run. I was asked by the newly-appointed
Chancellor to take over the ERM process that Internal Audit had started. Over time we have developed
a model program. We now offer multiple training
options to help employees at our ten colleges and
District Office determine how to identify and manage the risks and opportunities they own. It took five
years to develop our program to the point of “success” for me, but now I feel good about it.
Troy: We have had happy outcomes with our travel
abroad safety implementation, as well as our internship policies and procedures, so in light of those it
is hard to call a major disaster a “big success.” But
our 2008 Tea Fire wildfire response at Westmont
definitely qualified. As the massive fire raced toward
us, within 25 minutes our shelter mobilization was
nearly complete. In spite of major property damage
(eight campus buildings lost; a million square feet
of landscape; 210 neighboring homes destroyed),
we had no human casualties. We had planned for
this by testing our systems in advance. A good thing
too: when we first exercised our wildfire safety plans,
they didn’t work. A maxim in the world of emergency
20
management is that “Eighty percent of emergency
response plans, when exercised, are found to have
fatal flaws.” Certainly true of our initial test. But
over the years we learned and refined—and when
the reality test came, we passed with flying colors.
Well, almost. Alas, while the fire was sweeping the
campus, I suddenly discovered our kit keys and
radio were unexpectedly unavailable; 355 days a
year they are with me, but not that day. Caramba!
Lessons: 1) expect the unexpected! And 2) use the
resources you have! Afterward, orchestrating the claim
for the Tea Fire took far more time than I could have
imagined! 80-hour weeks for months on end. Still, it
was certainly gratifying that because of our successful institutional response, in a whole-faculty meeting
I was given a sustained standing ovation!
John W: We hit a home run with our proactive
“Cottontail Ranch” foot disinfection process. At a
rustic camp environment, the heaters failed in the
cabins when temps got “down”(!!) to 50°F in Malibu
Canyon (yes, that’s cold for us in southern California!). To beat the chill, campers from a local K–12
district left hot showers running to heat their cabins. The sudden influx and volume of water caused
the camp septic system to be overwhelmed. All the
pathways to the dining hall from the cabins flooded
with waste. Students were walking through effluent
to go eat! By the time Risk Management arrived, the
school district’s M.D. was on the scene as well. Our
joint recommendation: disinfect all the students! We
accomplished this by placing small tubs containing
a water and chlorine bleach solution for students to
walk through. I insisted on notification of parents,
school administrators, etc. This sort of proactive
suggestion helped the school district achieve a good
outcome and positive long-term relations.
Ellen: A home run is helping our Oregon public
universities develop a Risk Management culture into
an active program from what was essentially a budget
account code for several of the universities. When
I arrived in Oregon, I was surprised at the lack of
risk management resources on campus at all levels.
We now have an empowered and engaged group,
with lots of opportunity to do our jobs and inspire
colleagues to apply resources to better manage risk.
It’s great to see the universities’ risk management
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
efforts evolve from a program shown on an accounting fund line into a growing and effective enterprise
risk management program.
Base Hits
Home runs are impressive, but it’s often the steady
background drumbeat of solid base hits that wins
the ball game. Here are a few of our favorite little
hits, in outline form only. But feel free to contact
any of us for many more details about these small
but effective items we’re proud of:
1.Ruth: we improved our defensive driving
training and motor vehicle record checking
system
2.Craig: media equipment kept being stolen;
added “Sonic Shock” alarms
3.Doug: developed good contracts signing
policy (a chain leading up to Risk Management for vetting/CFO signing); created
templates too
4.Luke: developed “World’s Largest Scavenger Hunt” rules for one of the University of
Don’t seek all the monumental successes only; also celebrate—and chronicle—the small wins.
You can win the game with several base hits, not just a home run.
Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
Resident Building Beds
at the University of San Diego
Barbara Schatzer, MBA, ARM,
Senior Director, Risk Management,
University of San Diego
Situation:
• As
is true at many institutions, our residential buildings are used by a variety of summer programs
• Some of these necessitate moving existing
furniture temporarily to allow space for
more occupants.
• The time between summer programs and
the fall move-in is very short.
• Responsibility for bed assembly lies within
Residential Life, and the assembly is done
mostly by student workers.
• There are at least three varieties of beds in
the resident buildings.
• As students move in they consistently rearrange the furniture and/or re-configure it
(e.g., placing it on risers for more under the
bed storage space).
Results: beds may not be assembled correctly,
resulting in collapse or other failure.
Following an incident this semester, the above
situation was brought into focus. The university
responded with the following actions:
• A
notice to all residents asking them to notify
their Resident Director if they had either reconfigured their bed and/or felt it wasn’t stable in order
to prioritize an inspection and repair if needed.
• Detailed descriptions of each type of bed, with
pictures of proper setup, were distributed to each
RD and RA. Copies of same were provided to
Facilities Management staff who might be called
in to make a repair. (This is not normally their
responsibility, but it does occur.)
• RD/RA staff were tasked with performing
inspections of each bed by the second week
of class.
A secondary outcome of this incident is a better
accounting for damages to resident halls during summer occupations, repair time allowance, and allocation of the repair costs to the hosting departments.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
21
Chicago’s most famous—and difficult-tomanage—student activities
5.Joe: found ways to use the ERM process as a
positive narrative with financial institutions
and rating agencies to highlight the value of
What I have learned through the years
On Project Management
Elizabeth Cherry, JD, Executive Director,
Risk Management, University of Washington
I love task forces because their duration is
limited and they have a very specific mandate. When we staff a task force, we propose
a detailed project plan which concludes with
written recommendations being made to the
sponsor at a certain date. Then, unless a recommendation is for the task force to oversee
implementation of the recommendations and
the sponsor agrees to that, the work is done
and the task force is thanked and dismissed.
In our experience, busy people are very willing
to work on specific time- and scope-limited
projects.
Committees, on the other hand, frequently underperform or outlive their usefulness, and often there is no one willing to volunteer that it is
time to “Say goodnight, Gracie.” There should
be an annual report of committee accomplishments and recommendations to the sponsor at
the very least.
Outside of the construction arena, the best
project managers have no subject matter expertise; they are experts in delivering defined products on time and on budget. They rarely have
a vested interest in the outcome and wouldn’t
dream of administering the resulting program,
and thus are highly credible and effective in the
project phase.
22
ERM in informing the university’s decisionmaking processes
6.Chauncey: we developed an automated/
digitized accident/incident report form,
which saves time for the Consortium,
Colleges and the TPA
7.Troy: found a task management tool in 2009
that has fundamentally transformed my
managerial capabilities; I’m able to juggle
the urgent and the important much more
effectively now: Toodledo (see Appendix B:
Helpful Technologies).
8. Vince: installed GPS tracking devices on
all college vehicles; received automatic text/
e-mail real-time notification of speeders and
those outside geofences (permitted driving
boundaries) so we could follow up
9.Margaret: established standard baseline
conferences and events contracts
10.Luke: moved to very limited issuance of
certificates of insurance—just a letter re.
SIR/financials
11.Chauncey: we smoothed our claims handling by developing an attorney pre-approval
questionnaire (w/pricing schedule) for our
different attorney panels; attorney panels are
reviewed annually
12.Ruth: reducing effort put into collection
of routine certificates of insurance:
trusting indemnification language in
contracts instead
13.John W.: won small victories by focusing
on “preventability”: 1) set strict standards
on MVR acceptability for drivers, including
charging points for preventable vehicle
collisions; and 2) offered departments a
smaller internal property loss deductible if
they provided additional driver awareness
training
14.Doug: made a deal: if departments are willing to undergo a security audit and address
areas of concern, Risk Management will pay
for their property losses without application
of an internal deductible
15.Ellen: we performed property valuation spot
checks/appraisal; saved $$$ on full appraisals,
as well as normalized and improved the value
of insured property
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
16.John W.: switched system, so first reports for
Workers’ Comp injuries are done by trained
Public Safety officers
17.Doug: we too hired a trained accident
investigator in the Public Safety department
18.Ellen: Our team did the work to create our
NCCI rating (vs. state-assigned “1”)
19.Chauncey: learned to quickly engage the
services of a forensic accountant for catastrophic claims! Essential in Florida, where
cat claims are not a rarity for us!
20.Craig: Developed new student safety
orientation video (note: student-led with
student actors; needs refreshing every three
years or so)
21.Luke: we kept having serious injuries from
people tripping on doorway mats in med
center; finally bought thick “unflappable”
mats whose corners wouldn’t curl and become trip hazards
22.John M.: when clients who are self-insured
for workers’ compensation add claims advocacy and modeling, they tend to save significant dollars
23.Chauncey: made change to the Certificate of
Insurance request forms, adding two simple
lines: “Who at the college gets a copy? To
whom is this being sent?” The process is now
automated
24.Margaret: we were experiencing several slips
and falls in the dining services area, so we
paid for “Shoes for Crews” footwear for
employees; incidents went down
25.Joe: in response to increased demand for
monitoring the safety of the Georgetown
community traveling abroad, Risk Management led several initiatives to enhance
Georgetown’s “safety net” and manage
international risks in a comprehensive and
consistent manner. (Peter Drucker’s famous
quip, “You can’t manage what you can’t
measure” translated for us to “You can’t
manage the risk if you can’t map it!”)
We collaborated with the Provost’s office
to complete a foundational international
operations survey to map out our program
operations. The map served as a building
block for developing our international risk
management program, which now includes
initiatives such as:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
agreements database (central repository)
travel policy (developed collaboratively)
travel review committee
travel registry
contracted travel assistance and evacuation service
f. travelers resource web page
26.Several participants: digitizing (scanning;
perhaps OCR) all paper files from cabinets
tremendously reduces clutter and space
needs, while greatly improving accessibility
of information, especially for multiple
people in different locations. Note: proper
naming of files and folders for standard retrieval is key!
“That Was The Absolute Worst!”:
Things That Went Really, Really Wrong
Some of our Think Tank participants’ most
powerful lessons learned were based on painful
experiences. Here are a few stories we shuddered
over together; may they not happen to you.
John M.: Need-To-Know Basis?
You Don’t Need to Know
The legal department at a large institution chose
not to let Risk Management know early on of an
employment claim developing; “It will probably
be nothing and there’s no reason to file with the
insurance company yet…” But the claim went
south and developed into a very large, late reporting/uncovered claim.
Doug: So That Idea Was All Wet
Loyola Marymount University was building a
new science building. Emergency showers were
called for in the specs—but with no drains
underneath—“not required by code” said the
architect; but required by common sense! (The
facilities folks sided with architect; to put in the
drains would be a higher construction cost.) At
USC nearby, vandals pulled safety showers all the
time. It was not difficult to predict what would
happen next. After hours of water flow…
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
23
Craig: Fuelish Assumptions
Facilities always assumed that, in the event of
a power outage, they had 48 hours of oil in the
fuel tank to run the emergency steam/generation
plant. But in order to reduce capital costs, the
oil delivery company had reduced the regular
standing quantity typically left in the tank. The
power went out, the oil ran dry… research lost.
Lesson: Don’t assume the information you had, has
not changed!
Ruth: They Shot the Sheriff
We had a film school at one of our colleges that
decided to make a short music video. They chose
to shoot a “fictional” chase scene through downtown Phoenix, including scenes with a sheriff
wearing pink underwear. (The depiction of the
sheriff was not flattering.) The local county
sheriff, well known for his unorthodox treatment
of inmates by having them wear pink underwear,
had recently “raided” three of Maricopa’s colleges
and their District Office. Unfortunately the film
school was unsuccessful in obtaining certificates
of insurance from key groups involved in the production of the shoot. The outcome was that the
college President cancelled the film shoot. Sadly,
this meant that some students couldn’t graduate, as this was a required final project. A faculty
member led a student protest: “Risk Management
killed our film shoot—and my degree!” It was
the night of a Board meeting, too. Eventually,
the students ended up working on an alternative
project and did graduate after all. But that was
a bad time for us. Lesson: meet with leaders of
complicated, interactive projects early on!
John W.: “…And Not A Drop To Drink”
On the first day of Freshman Orientation at
our beautiful oceanside campus at Pepperdine,
the water main to town ruptured. Unfortunately
the reserve water tanks also had been drained
through regular use before the water district
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notified the community and our campus. The
campus had no fresh water. The freshmen were
issued small buckets, re-filled daily, to manually
flush their toilets: “Welcome to campus!” It was
an embarrassing and difficult time for all. Eventually, monitoring devices were installed in both
water reservoir tanks on campus to provide us
with extended warning times.
Echoes from Outside the Tank:
Specific Success Stories
Captive Insurance at Five Colleges
Elizabeth J. Carmichael, Director of Compliance
and Risk Management, Five Colleges Incorporated
Creating the captive insurance company,
Collegiate Catalyst Fund, in 2004 to enable the
colleges to effectively handle high-deductible
insurance policies through self-insuring the
policy retentions has been our most successful
cost-saving initiative, saving millions of dollars
for the colleges. Keeping all the data for the
captive has also had a terrific benefit in that it
has enabled us (and pushed us!) to closely track
all our risk management expenses, supporting
our TCOR project in good and unexpected
ways. Small institutions can benefit as well as
larger ones by taking on more risk, as long as
there is a management process in place. An
added benefit is that because the captive pays
the claims, Risk Management is directly involved in the claims management process, not
just the data management process. Our goal is
to have our hand in every incident, claim, or
potential claim on campus. This also allows us
to communicate initiatives and/or best practices
to our partners on campus. We have the opportunity for a learning moment every time a claim
comes through our doors.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
::::::::
“Lessons (I Wish I Had) Learned (Sooner)” ::::::::
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that;
for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct!
—Benjamin Franklin
It is always easier and cheaper to learn vicariously,
from other people’s hard-won experience and mistakes, than to make our own errors. Here are some
of the most important lessons the Think Tank
participants felt we had learned (are still learning?!)
over time.
1. Risk Management does not own the risks!
• RM assists others in managing their own
risks!
• Provide tools and processes for owners
• Functional risk owners must manage their
own risks
Ruth: We must maximize opportunities
and minimize risks. It is not the job of the
risk manager to remember everything.
Risk Management does not “own” the risks!!
We are not the subject matter experts!
We can’t know all the details of each individual
risk from departments’ unique operations,
but we should give tools and resources to
risk owners to identify and manage their risks
and opportunities.
Joe: Give people a process to ask the right
questions. Then help them find the answers.
A major lesson is that Risk Management does not own the risks!
– E.g., facilities with high workers’ comp loss
rates
– Risk management is about helping others
get to “yes”
John W.: Seek departmental ownership of
safety! Once the carpenters competed with the
electricians, etc. for better loss histories, they
owned the risk and the battle was won.
Luke: Some institutions have their compliance
committees “tasking items out” to risk owners. The result: Risk Management needs to do
internal education on the historical role of risk
management, and where we see it going in
future. Risk Management can’t own or manage
all the risks—we need people buying in. (But
sometimes there is a buy-in issue even within
our own area!)
Chauncey: Don’t forget to come back around
to it a year or so later, to see what lessons are
learned!
Ellen: This truth means we develop risk management tools for others; for example, checklists with
35-50 items might help others think through
the issues.
2. Managing the aftermath of a major claim is
incredibly time-consuming
• Anticipate travail!
• Personal touch and care is essential in claims
management
• Get the right person to come alongside an
injured party
“We had a challenging claim situation, in
which we could have settled the matter earlier
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
25
by paying more from our department. We extended the claim in order to save the funds, but
in the process dragged a faculty member and
others through a wearing process. I’m not sure
that was the right decision.”
3. “Nothing ever happens 9-5 M-F!” (At least it
sure does seem that way!)
4. Great ideas can be thwarted by internal political
motivations.
“We’ve got a good idea that is expensive at first
but after a three-year payback period, it is profitable indefinitely. Everyone thinks it’s a good idea,
but nobody can give us seed money because of
conflicting internal political pressures.”
5.Handle employment issues with particular care!
6. Take advantage of available technological help!
Troy: We were sued in 1999 over an asbestos
case from 1963, and we had unfortunately
tossed the policies that would have demonstrated that we were entitled to coverage!
Margaret: We had a similar case, and we had
kept our policies and were able to recover!
12. Among schemes of risk management ethics, the
“greatest good for the greatest number” system
ranks high.
13. Transportation risks are inordinately large and
must be managed well.
Ruth: There was a bad 15-passenger van accident before I came to the institution. The
pitcher of the baseball team had played in the
game; he was now driving—maybe tired? But in
any case, tired or not, it happened that the van
Be the first to share bad news, along with plans for next steps. “No surprises” is a good goal
anytime, but it certainly helps maintain the confidence and continued interest of your insurer.
If you later propose new terms and conditions based at least in part on the reported case,
you’ll have established a basis for a real discussion.
Chauncey: The 2004–2005 hurricanes taught
us in the Florida System of the need for technology to streamline and make efficient a lot of our
processes—there simply aren’t enough hours to
manually do forensic accounting, data collection
for claims, etc. With automation, closing out
FEMA claims after a storm can be done in 20
minutes!!!
7. In need of “big bang savings”? Look to Workers’ Comp for most provable savings due to loss
control efforts.
8. Foreign travel brings high levels of risk and must
be managed well.
9. Ally with brokers and insurers who add value to
higher education institutions.
10. “You can’t manage it if you can’t map it/
measure it”
11. Never throw away old insurance policies!
26
rear tire blew; two students died, many others
were injured. More than three years later, the
institution was still using 15-passenger vans. It
took another three years to make changes. Ultimately the way we influenced this decision was
with a deal: “If you get rid of your vans, you
may keep the trade-in value and we’ll give you
$35,000 each (from a dormant alternative fuel
fund)!” And—voila! no more vans! (However,
I occasionally get the call: “We can still rent or
lease those, right?’)
Craig: When a rental company offered to rent
us 15-passenger vans, I told Purchasing not to
use that company for anything!
Chauncey: In our rental contracts with Avis,
Enterprise, etc. we stipulate that no 15-passenger vans are allowed!
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
14. “Don’t be afraid to get the critical thinker—
or just plain critic—into the room. You won’t
succeed by involving ‘yes-men/women’ only.”
15. Get the data to back up whatever happens—
decisions that are made, recommendations
going forward—don’t just make gut calls. None
of us are good enough to always guess right
without obtaining supporting data.
16. Higher Education Risk Management success depends upon consensus building and collaboration.
17. “In internal disagreements, general counsel often (always?) wins! Develop good relationships!”
18. Don’t be afraid to ask questions—never stupid
19. It is a fallacy to say that “safety” = “no losses”
20. Keep in mind a “good enough” standard—don’t
let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
21. Learn how to navigate the politics of your institution! (and beyond…)”
• sometimes you will win; sometimes you won’t
• know which battles you are willing to ‘die’ for
• a negative is an opportunity
22. Find and embrace administrators opposed to
risk management; bring them on board!
Ruth: “I added one of my greatest critics (one of
my college presidents) to my ERM committee.
Soon she was one of my greatest supporters.”
23. Learn to communicate simply, without jargon!
Especially with non-insurance people, don’t
use insurance terms of art! (IBNR, “waiver and
estoppel,” SIRs, etc.)
24. “Sometimes you just have to make a decision
and move on”—you won’t have complete and
perfect information.
25. Exert influence with a carrot, not a stick.
26. Go into a meeting with two or three suggestions, not just one opinion. People love choice.
27. Don’t present a problem without also offering
a solution.
28. Do not blindside people! No surprises!
Boss should hear of a problem from you
before others.
29. Don’t be surprised if investigating a risk
situation is like peeling an onion: multilayered; it requires persistence to get to the
central issues
30. It is important to note the difference between
“certainty” and “confidence.” The former may
not be possible, while the latter might be.
It is a bit silly to list “only” thirty lessons learned—
there are so many life lessons to include, and the
more we do this job the more we learn. Take what
is helpful, and make your own list!
Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
Interaction with Student Life
at Lipscomb University
Kathy Hargis, MBA, Director,
Office of Risk Management
For several years, I have been working with
Student Life, meeting with our RAs the first
week on campus each fall. From a basic risk
and emergency management presentation in
the beginning, this has evolved into much
more. We bring in the fire department to
conduct hands-on fire extinguisher training.
The RAs actually participate in extinguishing
a fire, which is a huge hit and something they
look forward to each year. We also involve our clinic
folks to conduct training on AEDs and epi pens.
We use this opportunity to work as teams on case
studies: situations they may encounter during their
time as an RA. This is an excellent opportunity to
introduce risk management to a key group of students on campus, as well as to impart some key information pertaining to overall safety and emergency
planning at the same time. Adding some creativity
and fun to this event sets a very positive alliance
between student life and risk management for their
respective years at our university. Adding some food
to the event never hurts too! [To paraphrase the film
Field of Dreams: “If you feed them, they will come!”]
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
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Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
West Virginia University: Breaking Down
Traditional Workers’ Comp Barriers
Michael J. Gansor, CPCU, AAI, ARM, AU,
AFSB, Risk Manager, West Virginia University
On July 1, 2013, West Virginia University
(WVU) began a high-deductible ($250,000
per claim) workers’ compensation insurance
program. A significant jump in the renewal
premium for the guaranteed cost program
with the incumbent carrier made the move to
a high-deductible program the best option.
Workers’ compensation insurance programs are
the responsibility of Human Resources at many
institutions, and that is how it was at WVU.
That remains the case today; however, other
WVU departments are working closely with
Human Resources to maximize the program’s
performance. This was not always the case.
Human Resources receives and administers all
reported workers’ comp claims. Their focus
is on treatment of the employee in hopes the
employee can return to full duty as soon as possible. Environmental Health & Safety is responsible for development and delivery of campus
safety programs. Central to this effort is training, designed to reduce or eliminate employee
injuries. Risk Management is concerned with
selection of the insurance broker; identification
of the insurance carrier; premium negotiations;
analysis of claims reports; and other financial
and administrative functions. These three areas
of responsibility created the traditional “silo”
environment, and the associated barriers had
to be removed in order to operate a successful
high-deductible program. Risk Management
was the logical department to facilitate this
effort, and the progress after the first year has
been impressive.
There is one common objective for all parties involved with the workers’ compensation
program: to reduce the frequency and severity
of our workers’ compensation claims so fewer
employees are injured, less work time is lost,
and program expenses are reduced. In order
28
to accomplish this objective, communications were
established between Risk Management, EH&S,
Human Resources, the insurance broker, and the
insurance carrier. Collaborative efforts began, the
silos were breached, and past barriers began to come
down. A number of initiatives were begun, including
the following:
• Periodic
meetings were scheduled to identify
program goals and objectives
• With each subsequent meeting, progress was
charted, and new goals were added as necessary
• Separate quarterly claim reviews of the largest
claims were held to address areas of concern
• A reporting structure for claims was developed
to enable the focus of loss control efforts on
problem areas
• Areas with the most claims were identified
• The type of work or activity with the highest
number of claims was identified
• Reports have been developed that make it possible to identify claim trends by department
and job activity
• This information was used to develop safety
training programs designed to reduce employee
injury
• A campus awareness campaign is being developed to emphasize working safely
• This message will be delivered to employees in a
variety of media options
• The importance of reducing claim reporting
lag-time has been emphasized
• Increased efforts have been made to find viable
return-to-work options for eligible employees
This teamwork approach between all parties involved with the workers’ compensation insurance
program at WVU has opened lines of communication. Information of importance to members of the
team is exchanged freely and quickly. The results of
this approach resulted in a first-year projected premium
reduction after all claims are paid of approximately
$335,000 when compared to the premium for the
guaranteed-cost program of the previous year. Fewer
employee injuries, a reduction in lost work time, and
increased savings in workers’ compensation program
expenses are all projected for the future.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
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“Every New Risk Manager Should…”:
Writing Your Own Good Story ::::::::
Knowledge consists of knowing that a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom consists
of not putting it in a fruit salad.
—Miles Beresford Kington, British journalist, musician and broadcaster,
in The Independent, March 28, 2003
None of us started out as risk managers. Few of
us even started our working careers in this profession—maybe not even in this field. It is heartening
to see more and more formal undergraduate and
graduate programs in risk management at several
schools, with students graduating with the intention
and many skills to start out doing risk management
right away. But most of us, at one time or another,
found ourselves wishing for “the missing manual” of
risk management—how do we do this job, anyway?
There are so many variables, things to know, things
up—while still having the time to do the essential
elements of the job! Unfortunately, no one was able
to suggest methods for actually expanding the day to
25+ hours…
Ten Things to Read
1. Social media: institution’s accounts
(Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
2. Wall posters, etc. to see what events are
advertised for your institution
The Think Tank participants “carved” two basic categories: ten things that a beginning
risk manager should read (and pay attention to), and ten things he or she should do.
to keep track of—sometimes some fruit salads do
take tomatoes. How can one person possibly accumulate the knowledge and the wisdom necessary to
do this job properly?
We asked our panel what they would advise every
higher ed risk manager to do to acquire that essential
knowledge and wisdom—what would be the
“Ten Commandments” they would lay down as
law? The Think Tank participants actually broke our
question into two basic categories: ten things that a
beginning risk manager should read (and pay attention to), and ten things he or she should do. Here
are their nuggets of advice. We meant to list them in
rough priority order, but there was a friendly difference of opinion on our panel concerning which
was most important—and, indeed, if one person
could actually do and read all these things to keep
3. The student newspaper (and other literary
publications)
4. Both the agenda and the minutes of governing board meetings
5. Your institution’s strategic plan and business
model
6. Daily incident log from Campus Police/Public Safety
7. Regular alerts and hazard maps
a. NIXLE (local police and schools safety
notification system; signup required:
http://www.nixle.com)
b. OSAC (U. S. State Department foreign
travel warning and security update system; membership required: http://www.
state.gov/m/ds/terrorism/c8650.htm)
c. Severe weather alerts (real time; search
by zipcode at http://www.weather.com)
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
29
d. U.S. Geological Service Earthquake map
(updated in real time: http://earthquake.
usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/)
e. National Hurricane Center
(http://www.nhc.noaa.gov)
f. U.S. Drought Monitor (and proxy wildfire predictor; updated every Thursday
a.m.: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu)
g. Smithsonian Global Vulcanism Program
(monitors volcanic activity worldwide;
updated every Wednesday evening:
http://volcano.si.edu/reports_weekly.
cfm)
8. Your own institutional information
a. Website—revisit regularly to keep up
with current news
b. Annual Form 990s (required “tax” and
financial filings for private institutions;
Ten Things to Do
1. Practice “MBWA”: Management by Walking
Around
2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! If you don’t
know, say so and follow up!
3. Pizza and donuts go a long way toward good
relationships. “Feed them” when you have
meetings!
4. Community relationship maintenance
(including connecting with peers from other
higher education institutions in the area) is
important. Keep it up!
5. Host regular meetings, and become an expert
at leading good ones
6. Prepare in advance some “If I only had five
minutes with…” risk management presentations for different cohort groups and set-
Ruth Unks, Maricopa County Community College District: “You’ve got to get out there and meet
people. With ten colleges, we’ve got real issues of decentralization. I’m in the District Office and
don’t see students very often. When someone calls and says, “We have an issue,” get out of the
office and go see them! They appreciate it, and you see your customers in their environments.
one place to find them is at http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/990finder/)
c.Budget
d. Planning documents
9. Insurance company and broker publications
a. Large loss reports
b. RiskTips, monthly Gallagher Higher
Education Practice publication
c. Claims summaries
10.All your institutional insurance policies!
(It is always shocking to learn how many
risk managers don’t actually even read the
documents their institutions pay thousands—millions, sometimes!—of dollars
to obtain.)
30
tings: students, employees, new hires, faculty,
Board, parents, Deans, VPs, etc.
7. Be involved in continuous learning
a. Seek advanced degrees
b.Certifications
c. Volunteer for association leadership/
boards
8. Hire carefully!
a. trust your instincts/impressions on
potential hires
b. hire for career aims rather than a
paycheck
9. Communicate regularly and in multiple
formats what Risk Management is/does
10.Become known for the quality, completeness—and brevity!—of your reports, both
written and oral. People really, really appreciate that.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
Chapman University eWaiver
(http://www.chapman.edu/faculty-staff/riskmanagement/waiver.aspx)
Allan F. Brooks, M.A., CPCU, ARM, ARe, AU,
Director, Risk Management, Chapman University
In 2012 Chapman University Risk Management
made the decision to deal with the universal frustration experienced by students, staff and faculty
in creating, signing, and storing waiver forms for
voluntary participation in activities and events. Over
the years we have used either a Word document or
PDF template that could accommodate some minor
customization, but that did not address all of the
various frustrations associated with this process.
I think that most of us understand that the effectiveness of a generic, all-encompassing waiver form
is very limited. A good waiver should contain the
elements of assumption of risk, waiver of liability,
hold-harmless and indemnification language. To be
effective, each form should be a one-off, reflecting
the unique element of the subject activity or event.
So, in 2012 we decided to enlist the services of our
Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) people
in the development of an electronic tool. The goal
was to create a tool that allowed authorized parties
to create a custom waiver that would be reflective
of the unique characteristics of each event. What
we did was fairly basic; taking the boilerplate wording of our current form, and embedding that into
a program that allowed certain fields to be custom
entered electronically. Those fields included:
1. Name(s) of sponsoring entity/entities.
This item ranges from Recognized Student
Organizations, to University Departments,
to Academic Departments, with a separate
category for Faculty-led field trips. Multiple
sponsors can be used.
2. Title of Event
3. Event Start Date and Time
4. Event End Date and Time
5. Event Location(s)
6. Activity Risks. This is one of the more critical
customizations. This is where the user enters
the hazards unique to their event.
The end result is a final waiver form, or EWaiver as
we call it, than can be immediately deployed.
The next efficiency that we wanted to address was
deployment. So each new eWaiver is housed as a
unique URL, and this URL is created with the final
approval of each eWaiver. As a control mechanism,
we have designated certain persons as “Submitters”
with the authority to create or submit an eWaiver
to the system, but not to approve it. A more limited
number of persons are designated as “Approvers.”
They review the draft eWaivers, edit them if necessary, and then approve them for use. Once that
approval is granted, the unique URL is created,
and the system automatically e-mails that eWaiver’s
usable URL to the Approver. The event organizers
will include the URL in any communication of the
event, or can insert it in any marketing materials.
The unique URL is all that participants need to link
to the eWaiver, to review it, and to sign it.
The signature requires that the participant log in
to access the form, using their official University
login, which then authenticates their identity. If the
participants are minors, the system recognizes that
status, and provides them an opportunity to enter
in the e-mail of their parent or guardian. The system
will then automatically e-mail a PDF of the Waiver
form to that individual, for signature. The recipients
can either sign it and e-mail it back, or fax it to our
eFax number, so we have it in PDF format to attach
to the record. We do that by uploading it to the
record for that specific event. So, presto, we have all
signed waiver forms electronically, with no collection or storage of hard copy forms. At that point,
with the electronic signature of the participant, the
eWaiver becomes a reality. The participant is automatically e-mailed a PDF of the signed eWaiver. The
system creates a log of all signed eWaivers, specific to
each event, and those with approval can log in and
click down to the details of each signed form.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
31
There are times when a hard copy is needed, such
as for those events where participants do not preregister. They can either log in from their mobile
device, or sign a hard copy. Those hard copies are
scanned in bulk and uploaded to the record for the
event. So while there is some paper at the front end,
by scanning we eliminate the need to file the hard
copy for the long term.
Event organizers can log in to the system, click on
their event, and produce a full roster that identifies all persons who have signed the eWaiver. This
helps in estimating participation and planning on
resource needs. The eWaiver also collects emergency
contact information, which is especially helpful for
out-of-area and overnight travel.
We made it especially easy for faculty to create
eWaivers for their faculty-led field trips. They do
not need to be trained or be entered into the system
as authorized submitters or approvers. Based on
their login credentials, the system allows them to
create and approve their own waivers in one step.
This system has been a great success. The entire
university community loves it! We engaged Student
32
Life in the early discussions, and they supported
the concept from day one. Once we saw how well
it worked, we introduced it to faculty as a required
replacement for their outdated paper process. That
took only one brief meeting with the appropriate
vice chancellor.
The system addresses the risk of using poorly written waivers or lost waivers due to failure to retain in
storage. We found that many student organizations
kept the waivers in their car trunk for a few days,
then threw them out! That does not happen anymore; these are retained on a network server that
receives routine backup. The cost of the project was
only that which could be attributed to the time of
staff in creating the tool. One programmer worked
on it intermittently, between other projects, so I do
not even have an allocation of hours spent. It was
not charged back to Risk Management, so we do
not have a cost to report.
An approach like this can be deployed by schools of
all shapes and sizes. For more information, including access to our PowerPoint training material, see
this website: http://www.chapman.edu/faculty-staff/
risk-management/waiver.aspx
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
::::::::
Essential References for Higher Education
Risk Management ::::::::
Knowing I lov’d my books, he furnish’d me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
An African proverb says, “The death of an old
person is the burning of a library.” But we humans
have an advantage the library does not: we can
actively seek out others, both to glean their knowledge and to share our own. Our Think Tank participants discussed several reference works, articles,
subscriptions and websites that we consider “standard works,” most helpful to our own success and
essential for the library of a higher education risk
manager. While this is by no means a complete list
(and your favorite may have been omitted!), here
are a few of the most important to our team:
Blanchard, Ken. Raving Fans: A Revolutionary
Approach to Customer Service. William Morrow, 1993. How to turn your “customers”
with low expectations into satisfied “raving”
fans with great bottom-line effects.
Books
Jones, Richard B. 20% Chance of Rain: Exploring the Concept of Risk. Wiley, 2011 (2nd ed.).
Accessible introduction to concepts of risk,
analysis, and management, with practical
examples and no overdose of mathematics.
Abraham, Janice M. Risk Management:
An Accountability Guide for University and
College Boards. AGB Press (a joint publication of the Association of Governing Boards
and United Educators RRG), 2013. Delineates board responsibilities for Enterprise
Risk Management, committee by committee,
with sample checklists and guidelines for
who should take ownership of which risks.
Bernstein, Peter. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. Wiley, 1998. From Greeks
rolling sheep anklebones, through Lloyds’
coffee-house-cum-insurance-giant, to statistical probabilities and analytics and the modern stock exchange, this well-written history
of risk is informative and highly entertaining.
Insurance and Risk Management Institute
(IRMI). Glossary of Insurance and Risk Management Terms (IRMI, 2012). For those times
when you might need a refresher on what,
exactly, “waiver and estoppel,” “The Jones
Act,” “the hammer clause” etc. are all about.
Kaplin, William, and Barbara Lee. The Law of
Higher Education. Jossey Bass, 2007 (4th ed.;
a 5th ed. Student Edition is also available).
A summary and overview of laws and court
rulings on higher education; an essential
reference work, with chapters on Faculty,
Students, Community, etc. Good indices.
Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012. Bestselling business
book gives eight specific steps for managing
positive change.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
33
Lake, Peter F. The Rights and Responsibilities of the
Modern University: The Rise of the Facilitator
University. Carolina Academic Press, 2013
(2nd ed.). Recently revised and updated, this
is a definitive review of legal issues applicable
to higher education in the U.S., covering
health and safety, the in loco parentis doctrine
as currently applied, wellness, judicial rulings, legislative and regulatory mandates,
also—sadly—chronicling the rise of
“Compliance U.”
Mattimore, Bryan W. 99% Inspiration: Tips,
Tales, and Techniques for Liberating Your Business Creativity. American Management Association, 1993. An overview of both theory
and technique of creativity, with proven ideas
to unleash yours.
Ropeik, David, and George Gray. Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What’s Really Safe and
What’s Really Dangerous in the World Around
You. Houghton Mifflin, 2002. An excellent
chapter-by-chapter analysis of commonly
perceived risks, from microwaves to mad
cow disease, nukes, cell phones and more.
A fine introduction to thinking scientifically
about risk.
Subscriptions
• Chronicle
of Higher Education: the bible of what
goes on in higher education; pretty much a
must-read in either print form (weekly) or digital
(weekly, with daily excerpts, updates, and tailored
content): http://chronicle.com
• Inside Higher Education: website and daily
e-mail update on the state of the higher education
“industry”: https://www.insidehighered.com
• Business Insurance magazine (particularly helpful
for information on brokers and insurance carriers):
http://www.businessinsurance.com
• Risk Management magazine (a RIMS publication):
http://www.rmmagazine.com/
• Risk & Insurance magazine (LRP Publications):
http://www.riskandinsurance.com
• Kiplinger Letter (depending on your responsibilities—this might be too finance-heavy for some:
http://www.kiplinger.com)
• The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/
home-page) for business information
• The Economist (http://www.economist.com) for
world news
Associations and Memberships
• The
University Risk Management and Insurance
Association (URMIA): highly focused on higher
Echoes from Outside the Tank: Specific Success Stories
Self-Insuring Workers’ Comp at Johnson
County Community College
Tom Clayton, Director: Insurance and Risk
Management
When I arrived at Johnson County Community College in May 2000, workers’ compensation claims were managed in Human Resources. The only responsibility I had related
to workers’ compensation was to purchase the
workers’ compensation insurance policy. On
different occasions I mentioned to Human
Resources that I would be willing to take
over the day-to-day management of workers’
34
compensation claims. Human Resources was not
doing a bad job managing work comp claims, but
to my way of thinking it didn’t make sense to have
that function within Human Resources. It took
some time, but they finally took me up on my offer
around 2003. At that time our MOD factor was
.97 and we purchased traditional first-dollar coverage for workers’ compensation. After closely studying the option for a few years, we made the move
to self-insurance in July 2008. Since that time we
have enjoyed significant premium savings that have
allowed us to build a healthy workers’ comp reserve
fund, and we are also proud that our current MOD
factor is now at an enviable .56.
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
education risk management and extremely helpful:
https://www.urmia.org/urmia.cfm
• Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS),
the big granddaddy of all risk management organizations: http://www.rims.org/
• Public Risk and Insurance Management Association (PRIMA), especially tailored for public entities: http://www.primacentral.org
• Association of Government Risk and Insurance
Pools (AGRIP), for those institutions involved
in such pools: http://www.agrip.org (warning:
steep $ reported)
• The Higher Education Compliance Alliance, to
help with the myriad compliance responsibilities
facing an institution: http://www.higheredcompliance.org/
Mentoring Relationships
• Monitor
the URMIA listserv; use the “Ask a Risk
Manager” feature and/or seek a mentor there. This
has been tremendously helpful to many of us.
• Seek a mentor within your own organization,
sspecially re. culture and “who’s who”
Other References and Affiliated Groups
• IRMI
(http://www.irmi.com): founded as the
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.,
IRMI provides good manuals, white papers,
newsletters, commentary etc. on all matters related
to insurance, legal, and risk management issues.
Some of the best library reference resources for a
risk manager are available from IRMI.
• CSHEMA (http://www.cshema.org): the Campus
Safety, Health and Environmental Management
Association—lots of good information on EH&S
and an important partner to risk management
• OSAC (https://www.osac.gov/Pages/Home.aspx):
The Overseas Security Advisory Council of
the U.S. Department of State issues regular warnings, information, guidelines and other helpful
information on a regular (daily, weekly, etc.)
basis to member higher education institutions
(membership is by institution but is relatively easy
to obtain). Well worth the time for the security
and safety insights for schools running travel
abroad programs.
• NACUA (http://www.nacua.org): the National
Association of College and University Attorneys
represents another group with which risk
management is often allied
• ACUA (http://www.acua.org/): the Association
of College and University Auditors often works
closely with risk management, especially at institutions where Enterprise Risk Management is
implemented or under consideration
• CUPA-HR (http://www.cupahr.org): The College
and University Professional Association for Human Resources often combines forces with risk
management on matters of employment liability,
workers’ compensation, employee health insurance
and other issues
• Educause (http://www.educause.edu/): The higher
education information technology association—
collaboration with risk management on issues of
cyber risk is key
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
“... and they lived happily ever after”
As we gathered over the conference table on a
cold February day sharing stories and experiences
dealing with risk challenges, I found myself thinking, “I am having a ‘get the spoon’ moment.” In
McLaughlin family lore, a “get the spoon” moment
is when someone is about to share some advice. It
stems from a story my father would tell us as young
children when he thought a productive learning
moment was at hand. It went like this: a grandfather and granddaughter were setting the table for
Thanksgiving dinner. The young girl picked up
a serving spoon and looked into it, exclaiming,
“Grandpa! The spoon is just like a mirror, except
everything is upside down!” Grandfather reached
across and gently turned her wrist, so that things appeared in the spoon right-side up. He noted, “Sometimes the difference between things being upsidedown or right-side up is a simple twist of the wrist.”
What struck me in these conversations was that we
were benefitting from proven success stories that
had been through evolutions—iterations refined
repeatedly until they worked well. Few of the solutions presented were the first attempts. The benefit here
in this abbreviated document is that we all benefit
from distilled learning. What excited me about these
moments was the understanding that I was hearing
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
35
accumulated knowledge—and wisdom. We hope we
have captured some of that for you—and we hope
you are not discouraged if you too face several iterations before you find the solutions that work for you
and your institution’s challenges. Just “get the spoon”
and keep turning your wrist, until things turn rightside up for you, too.
I would like to thank all of our colleagues who
shared their time and experience for this project.
Without you and your support, this paper would
not be possible. I would like to recognize and thank
my colleagues, Vince Morris, who shouldered the
majority of responsibility for pulling this paper
together, and John Watson, for his valuable editorial
contributions.
their stories, for the benefit of others. We’ve been
privileged with the responsibility of bottling for
you their distilled wisdom, developed and refined
over many years. We hope you find these lessons
beneficial to you and your institution, and worthy of
adding to your library of risk management lore.
John McLaughlin
Managing Director
Higher Education Practice
Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc.
One of the joys of working in the higher education
field has been the opportunity to collaborate with
professionals so willing to share their experience,
36
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
::::::::
Appendix A: Best Habits for Each Stage
of Risk Management ::::::::
The Think Tank team suggested three different
phases of risk management: new, intermediate,
and mature, and suggested different primary tasks
for each stage. Here’s how we think you will find
success at each stage:
A. New Stage: The new risk manager, or one
new to higher education, needs to:
1. Develop job-specific critical technical
skills: excellent written and oral presentation skills; reading and understanding
insurance policies, financial statements,
contracts, waivers and releases, use of
appropriate software
2. Develop good habits: time management,
work/life boundaries, courtesy and efficiency in content and timing of communications, excellent listening skills
3. Understand institutional finances: budgeting, funds control, prioritization, use
4. Understand who you report to: meet
their needs, speak their language and
help them succeed
5. Understand the institutional story
(history, uniqueness, future plans), so
you can tell it in a way that helps brokers
and underwriters place your policies
6. Learn appropriate professional behavior:
“Be the first to leave the bar, not the
last”; dress codes, meeting protocols
(become good at leading meetings effectively—people really appreciate that)
B. Intermediate Stage: After a few years of
learning the ropes, you should:
1. Develop and communicate the risk
management reputation: develop
distinctive mission, vision and values,
a reputation for probity and responsiveness, and a clear message of how you
help others and the institution
2. Develop additional technical skills:
seek certifications, continuing education
(e.g., ARM, CRM, etc.; MBA? other
degrees and proof of mastery), specialized skills (e.g., GIS, coding, use of
RMIS systems)
3. Practice public communication: speaking, writing, starting to “give back” to
the profession
4. Become a facilitator: spend a higher and
higher percentage of your time helping
others succeed
5. Become well known as a collaborator:
Work with teams toward group goals
C. Mature Stage: to maximize your higher
education risk management career potential:
1. Continue learning! Make it a lifetime
commitment
2. Avoid stagnancy and complacency: try
new things in professional and personal
life; take appropriate risks
3. Become a visionary—seek strategic solutions, working beyond operational risk
management, and sharing with others
your visions of a potential future
4. Become a mentor: help less experienced
risk managers grow and succeed
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
37
::::::::
Appendix B: Helpful Technologies
Several of us at the Think Tank regularly use many
of these tools for enhancing our workplace effectiveness. These are not meant to be promotions—there
are other, perhaps better, solutions in each category,
and we aren’t selling stock in any of these (and we
may have missed your favorite). But some of us have
found the following to be quite helpful:
1.Productivity
a. Toodledo (http://www.toodledo.com):
to-do lists on steroids—especially valuable are the sharing, assignment and reasssignment, and prioritization functions
that allow task management across a staff
b. EverNote (https://evernote.com): cloudbased document management, including
notes, links, voice memos, etc., synchronized and available on each logged-in device (seamless from computer to phone
to tablet, etc.)
c. Audible.com: audiobooks; free business
content
d. Success magazine (https://subscriptions.
success.com): online tips, CDs, etc. with
ways to be successful, suggestions for
working across generational lines, etc.
2. Presentation Software
a. Visio: diagramming, vector program
(part of the Microsoft Office family)
allowing great flexibility and detail in
charts, diagrams, etc.
b. Prezi (http://prezi.com): flexible, creative
and eye-catching alternative to PowerPoint, etc. (note: hosted web! Be careful
of unprotected/proprietary data)
3.Collaboration
a. SmartSheet (http://www.smartsheet.
com/coordinate-anything-4): project
management and collaboration tool:
file sharing, Gantt charts, etc.
38
::::::::
b. GoToMeeting (gotomeeting.com): group
conferencing, presentation, and screen
sharing
c. Box (www.box.com): secure file sharing
and cloud storage. See also DropBox
(www.dropbox.com)—but: be aware of
possible risks re. shared folders & permissions, version control
d. GoogleDocs: document sharing/joint
editing capability, but: possible privacy
and security risks
e. XMind (www.xmind.net): collaboration,
brainstorming, mindmapping tool
f. Join.me (www.join.me): simple, fast,
remote screen-sharing solution
4.Search
a. Bing! maps (www.bing.com) Esp. aerial
photographs—may have better resolution than Google (w/bird’s-eye view);
Microsoft account required
b. Google Advanced Search on .edu extensions—use “site:edu” or select option
from advanced search page to limit
searches to higher-ed-specific domain
names
5. Risk-Management-Specific Tools
a. Travel tracking software (e.g., Terra
Dotta www.terradotta.com): keep track
of all your institutional travelers, or at
least the ones who register
b. RMIS (e.g., RiskPartner): a “Risk Management Information System” is much
more powerful than a spreadsheet or basic database system—it integrates claims,
policies, property lists, and many, many
other aspects of risk management
c. Notification systems (various types—
reverse-911, automatic texting, e-mails,
etc.) One good idea: for Public Safety/
campus police/others in control: have a
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
browser tab opened every day, ready to
go ASAP to save time logging in to the
campus notification system)
d. Emergency Management Tools (e.g.,
Blackboard—aspects of it, anyway);
FrameworkEd, WebEOC (especially for
publics; integrates directly with municipal/county systems)
e. Training (e.g., Canvas: https://www.canvas.net) delivered online; several software
programs and systems do this with varying degrees of complexity and cost. Risk
Management must multiply our efforts
via training many others, and doing so
online is becoming a necessity
f. Claims management systems (probably
not needed for small schools with fewer
claims; can be essential for big schools)
6. Other Tools
a. Twitter feeds from essential web pages
(www.twitter.com)
b. SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.
com): fast, easy surveys, results reporting
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
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::::::::
Appendix C: Death of a Student: Best Practices
All our Think Tank participants agreed that one of
the saddest aspects of managing institutional risk
is dealing with the occasional death of a student
from our institutions. Whether the individual dies
of disease, accident, suicide or some other reason,
there are a series of difficult tasks that must be accomplished with care and sensitivity. The statistical
frequency of such an event dictates that each institution should have a prepared plan of action in order
to take all appropriate measures, avoid offending
grieving family members, enable assistance to other
students and employees, and generally make sure
things are done “decently and in order.” Our participants noted they are occasionally surprised to learn
of institutions that do not yet have such checklists
in place, and the group agreed we should include a
version here.
While guidelines will vary from institution to institution, below is a sample checklist to consider or to
use as a baseline. May you need it rarely, indeed.
Sample Checklist In the Event
of A Student Death
Policy
When any institution office is informed of the death
of a student, it shall immediately notify the Office of
the Vice President for Student Affairs.
All follow-up activity will be coordinated by the
Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and
is responsible for coordinating the following procedures upon notification of a student’s death.
Definition(s)
• Estate:
The property and possessions of a
deceased person, and the person(s) entitled
to its ownership.
• Executor: Personal representative of the estate
of the deceased student who is legally empowered
to handle the business of the deceased.
• Family: Spouse, parent(s), children, guardian,
or next of kin.
40
::::::::
Procedure
In the event of the death of a student, each of the
following named offices will be responsible for the
following:
Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs
1. Notify each of the following department(s)
of the death of the student, and coordinate
procedures for follow-up (names and functions of departments vary by institution):
a. Accounts Receivable (indebtedness to
the institution)
b. Academic Advising (advising record)
c. Alumni Relations (alumni records)
d. Athletics (intercollegiate athlete)
e. Counseling Services/Chaplain (support)
f. General Counsel (legal issues)
g. Housing (personal belongings)
h. Information Technology (access to systems)
i. International Services (foreign students/
traveling students)
j. Intramurals/Athletic Services (lockers)
k. Library (library books/fines)
l. Media Relations (publication of death/
media requests)
m. Placement Services (student employment)
n. Vice President for Academic Affairs
(school or college)
o. Public Safety/Campus Security/Campus
Police (verification of death)
p. School/College (academic record)
q. Registrar (official records)
r. Student Activities (student organizations)
2. It is the coroner’s responsibility to notify the
family in consultation with the campus Chief
of Police/ranking local security officer. Campus officials may only then contact a member
of the deceased student’s family.
3. Prepare and send a sympathy letter and
follow-up instructions to the family with a
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
copy to the department/or college. (See note
for International Students)
4. Determine the family’s preferences regarding
a campus memorial.
5. Determine the family’s preference regarding
handling of deceased’s personal property and
electronic resources. Advise appropriate offices and departments.
6. Confirm that follow-up has been made by
the appropriate departments.
Accounts Receivable
1. Upon notification of a student’s death,
review the student account, cancel, and close
the account.
Academic Advising
1. Notify records and inactivate current file.
Alumni Relations
1. Review the alumni information system to
ascertain if the student has a record.
2. If a record exists, code the record as “deceased” with the appropriate date, and remove the deceased’s name from mailing lists.
3. Review the alumni information system to
ascertain if the deceased has an alumnus/a
spouse or partner. If so, amend the mailing
list to include the surviving spouse or
partner only.
Athletics
1. Notify coach(es).
2. Do not remove personal belongings from
athlete’s locker until you receive directions
from VP of Student Affairs.
Counseling Services
1. Provide personal counsel and advice when
services appropriate.
2. Arrange for a behavioral health counselor to
respond to the scene, if appropriate.
General Counsel
1. Respond to contacts concerning legal questions by the family and other attorneys.
2. Review legal documents.
3. Advise and respond to legal issues.
Housing
1. Inform roommates of student death and
instruct them not to move nor remove any of
the deceased’s belongings or property.
2. Change the locks and seal the room if the
deceased was a single occupant.
3. Make arrangements for the executor or family to pack and/or pick up the deceased’s
property. If instructed by the family for the
institution to pack the property, establish
an inventory list and have a second housing
authority staff person audit the inventory.
4. Compute outstanding rent until the date
the room is vacated. Apply the security deposit first to offset any expenses and normal
charges. The deceased student’s estate shall be
liable for all costs incurred until the apartment is vacated and the Housing Office will
notify the estate of the continuing liability.
Information Technology
1. Do not disable or delete any of the student’s
resources (e-mail, server permissions, etc.)
until instructed by the VP of Student Affairs.
2. Be prepared to provide electronic copies of
the student’s resources: voice-mail greeting,
incoming voice-mails, and e-mails.
3. Follow request from family regarding the initiation of an explanatory “extended absence”
message on both e-mail and voice-mail.
International
1. Notify the family of the death of an International Services student.
2. Contact the appropriate embassy involved (if
appropriate).
3. Where appropriate, arrange for a person who
speaks the language of the deceased to be
available to assist with communication.
4. Assist the family with arrangements for the
repatriation of the deceased.
Intramurals/Recreational Space
1. Notify locker room manager to determine if
student had a locker.
2. Do not remove personal belongings from
student’s locker until you receive directions
from VP of Student Affairs.
Gallagher Higher Education Practice :: What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore
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Library
1. Waive Library fines.
2. With discretion, the library will explore
options for the retrieval of books or other
materials still loaned to the deceased.
Placement Services/Human Resources
1. If the deceased was a student employee, notify the employing department.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Office/School/
College/ Academic Department
1. Upon request of the family, return by mail to
the family any assignments completed by the
deceased student; e.g., papers, examinations,
reports.
Public Safety/Campus Police
1. If necessary, assist in verification of death by
contacting one or more of the following: hospital, state/local police, appropriate county
office.
2. Report verification to the Vice President for
Student Affairs.
Registrar’s Office
1. Change student record to reflect “Deceased”
status in the official records.
2. Delete the deceased student’s address from
the institution mailing database.
3. If no academic credit is to be granted for the
term, cancel all tuition and fee assessments.
4. Notify the deceased student’s instructors.
5. Inform the Vice President of Student Affairs
if there are any other students with the same
full name as the deceased. In such instances,
the Vice President of Student Affairs will
inform the families of these individuals that
their student was not the one involved.
6. Federal Health and Human Services Regulations and NACUBO Guidelines require the
Death Certificate if the student is receiving
financial aid. Request a copy of the Death
Certificate from the family or some verification of the student’s death. Copies of the
death certificate will be distributed to the
Director of Financial Aid when such verification is required; and the Office of the Registrar will retain a copy.
42
Financial Aid Office
1. Review any outstanding loans.
a. If institution loans exist, advise Scholarship Office.
b. Advise family of any loan programs to
which the deceased was indebted. When
the loan is not forgiven, arrange for
repayment.
1. Generally, the student is withdrawn from all
course work for which he/she was enrolled
that semester and the student’s estate provided a full refund of tuition and fees. The
refund check, made payable to the student’s
estate, will then be mailed separately from a
letter condolence sent by the Bursar’s Office.
The Bursar may also refund parking
and other miscellaneous fees.
2. Amend the file and code the record as
deceased.
3. Notify State and Federal agencies of
deceased status.
Student Activities
1. Notify each student organization in which
the deceased was a member.
2. Determine if the organization has any
personal property or projects materials that
the student was involved with. Advise VP of
Student Affairs.
3. Make arrangements via VP of Student Affairs
for the executor or family to pack and/or
pick up the deceased’s property. If instructed
by the family for the institution to pack the
property, establish an inventory list and have
an institution staff person audit the inventory, including photographs of the items to
be returned.
Note: Sometimes a student dies while traveling
abroad. In this case, additional tasks are required.
For these, an excellent additional related resource,
offering a wealth of operational considerations, is
the NAFSA-published article, When A Student Dies
Abroad, by Julie Friend: http://www.nafsa.org/_/
File/_/ie_novdec13_supplement.pdf
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What I Wish I’d Known When I Started: Higher Education Risk Management Lore :: Gallagher Higher Education Practice
I have, alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
And to my cost Theology,
With ardent labour, studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part I
Two Pierce Place
Itasca, IL 60143-3141
Gallagher Higher
Education Practice
About the Gallagher Higher Education Practice
The Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Higher Education Practice provides tailored Property & Casualty, Student Health
and Accident and Employee Benefit solutions for colleges and universities. Working with more than 800 institutions
worldwide, our purpose is to help institutions make informed decisions relative to their risk management program
and practices enabling them to optimize their Total Cost of Risk, increase their risk management capacity, and
strengthen institutional resilience.
For more information, contact:
John McLaughlin
Managing Director, Gallagher Higher Education
[email protected]
www.ajg.com/highereducation