Code Corner

32 � Division of Chemical Hea

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Things to think ab

out whenPOTUS comes to campus

T here is nothing more energizing andscary than when you find out the Pre-sident of the United States (POTUS) is

coming to your campus. Serving as one of mycampuses point persons, I have lived throughand survived the visits of two sitting presidents,a visit by a former president, two visits by apresidential spouse, a visit by candidates forPresident and Vice President and numerousother dignitary visits. Each visit had its owncomplexities driven by physical location of theevent, time of day, number of attendees, secur-ity needs and number of days to plan andcoordinate the event.

The amount of heads up you will get prior toa POTUS visit may be as few as 3–4 days for asitting president and depending on your rolemay be 100% time consuming. Hopefully,when your campus administration decides tohost a presidential visit your campus executiveteam immediately establishes a clear chain ofcommand with one person who has all decisionmaking authority and who can assemble animplementation team that can move heavenand earth. That person in turn needs to havea clear understanding of the roll of all other onand off campus supporting players.

The number of people and groups you willneed to coordinate with will be staggering.From a safety and security standpoint it willinclude White House staff; Secret Service;campus EHS; campus police; local police;venue management; campus transportationservices; campus and municipal fire services;campus and municipal emergency medical ser-vice; event security staff; community and cam-pus HAZMAT; production company doing thelighting, staging and sound (permitting may berequired for structures they build and stage andseating layout will determine occupancy); andanyone involved with ticketing and ticket dis-tribution (both from a crowd control stand-point for ticket distribution and occupancylimit standpoint).

There will be a small White House team thatcomes to campus that your campus group willneed to meet, coordinate and negotiate with.This team handles venue selection, press, ticketdistribution and logistics and is the liaison tothe White House. The visiting team will firstscout locations but the final venue selectionwill be approved by the White House. Theteams are professional (remember they have

lth and Safety of the American Chemical Society

ed.

done this before) and the key to your successand their success is building a rapport andmaking sure everyone clearly articulates theirrespective expectations.

In our case, many of the campus visits havecome during the day and you need to under-stand that when a presidential motorcademoves, everything else stops. We carry on aver-age 17,000 passengers a day (mostly students)on our campus bus system and you need tohave a good understanding of how people andvehicles move around your campus so as not tototally disrupt campus life during the visit.

During one visit the White House teamwanted a large venue and we used a 15,000seat arena in the middle of campus. During thatvisit the Provost suggested faculty cancel classand invite students to the event. Close to10,000 tickets were issued to students on a firstcome first serve basis (students waited in linefor hours to get tickets at specified distributionpoints on campus). A second presidential visitwas a much smaller event and only about 600student tickets were allocated for an event thataccommodated 2500. That event was held in atennis facility on the edge of campus andalmost all campus life activities and classesstayed on a regular schedule. However theplanning for the smaller venue was equally ascomplex as for the larger.

Likely the first major decision point after thedate and time for the visit are established willbe identifying the on campus venue(s) that willhost the event. White House event staff willcome to campus and describe the vision for theevent (number of attendees; student count ver-sus staff count; off campus dignitaries; campuslaboratory visit; timing, etc.). From an environ-mental health and safety perspective the FireMarshall or authority having jurisdiction needsto be engaged early in any discussion on venueselection. After you understand the vision theFire Marshall and appropriate staff will workwith the White House advance team to selectthe campus venue(s) depending on availabilityand location.

When the location is selected the first goalwill be to establish the occupancy load (see theInternational Fire Code Chapter 10 Means ofEgress, section 1004 Occupant Load). TheWhite House staff fully understand the needto abide by occupancy limits but ultimately thestage layout, seating configuration, standing

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2014.03.010

[(Photo_1)TD$FIG]

Photo 1. The calm before the storm. Visual media staging adjacent to the venue of apresidential visit. Any vehicles not in place at a time designated by the secretservice forfeit their access.

area and media coral that needs toaccommodate both visual and writtenmedia (there are usually 200 plusmedia for an announced presidentialvisit) need to be estimated before theFire Marshall signs off on a draft plan.The White House contracts out thestage construction, lighting and soundand the Fire Marshall should be avail-able during the up fit, which dependingon complexity can take 12 or morehours (Photo 1).

Also, give special consideration tohow egress paths may be blocked bythe stage setup, bunting, banners,media and security. Bicycle racks areoften set up to protect the stage areaand demark various VIP and seatingsections. In all likelihood your FireMarshall may not be able to specify afinal occupancy load until all struc-tures and security are in place.

Sweat and think about the smalldetails. Anticipate that access torestrooms could be restricted andmake accommodations for portablefacilities. Anticipate that you will needto manage people who don’t make itinto the venue because they arrive late.Have an electrician, plumber and EHSstaff on call in the venue within thesecurity perimeter to address any

Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, May/June 2014

facility related emergencies. Have aplan to handle anyone who may tryto disrupt the event.

One thing to keep in mind is thatduring a POTUS visit your campuspolice will be coordinating with thesecret service on site access and egress.The secret service will define the secur-ity perimeter and lock down andsearch the venue hours before it starts.

The secret service will bring their ownmagnetometers and set up entry pointsfor all guests and press. People atticketed events will be encouraged toline up 2–3 hours before the scheduledevent. You will need to make provi-sions for hydration, porta johns andemergency medical services at pointswhere people will line up.

When the presidential motorcadestarts to move (the motorcade couldbe ten or more miles from campus)expect all adjacent roads will be closedto traffic and the venue will be closed.That means that any stragglers waitingin line will be denied access to thevenue. When the motorcade gets closeall venue doors will be closed andnobody can come or go until the pre-sident enters and leaves.

What I have recounted in this lim-ited column gives you a little insightinto a POTUS visit but cannot do jus-tice to the complexity and stress ofsetting up a successful event. Ulti-mately success will be guaranteed byengaging the correct campus decisionmakers and engaging the White Houseadvance team. At the conclusion of theevent, both groups will appreciate theteamwork that went into the eventplan.

David and his son Josh with the Pre-sidential limousine, ‘‘The Beast.’’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSPlCRcpds.

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