Kip Mecum is in the business of planning for events – events he hopes never happen.

If a tornado hit the University of Illinois campus, if a student came down with a case of avian flu, how would the UI respond?

Unlike some businesses, the university, with its tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff, not to mention research animals, just can't shut down in the event of an emergency, said Mecum, the UI's director of emergency planning.

"Our primary business is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the remaining student population is about 35,000. During a pandemic, some (students) may decide to stay, some may go. We also have about 6,000 international students who might find it difficult to leave," Mecum said.

And consider: The UI also has more than 200 major buildings on campus, and inside those buildings are faculty members who may have been collecting data on a project for a decade, Mecum said.

Again, you just can't lock up the buildings and tell people to go home for a while.

This summer, top university administration, department heads, some supervisors and other key personnel are undergoing training on how to respond to an emergency whether it is a natural or intended one.

And just last week the Division of Public Safety's Office for Campus Emergency Planning released a preliminary plan on how the university would respond if an infection disease outbreak hit the campus.

"What we're trying to do is answer questions and make recommendations," Mecum said. In the event of an infectious disease outbreak, many different UI units would be working together, such as the Division of Public Safety, McKinley Health Center, Facilities and Services and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

The infectious disease response plan outlines, among many other things, which departments and administrators would be doing what, when administrators would decide whether or not students should be sent home, when to evaluate which buildings would be possible quarantine areas.

The UI also has a memorandum of understanding with Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana which calls for Memorial Stadium to be a "surge facility" if Carle became overwhelmed with patients. That means overflow patients would stay in the stadium.

Also, in the event of a major event such as a bioterrorism attack or major outbreak, people would go to the Assembly Hall to receive vaccinations or other medications.

The building is designated a "strategic national stockpile facility," Mecum said. The facility would be a repository for antibiotics and other medicines.

Over the next two months, campus staff will be studying and discussing what Mecum called trigger points, what conditions would be required to exist for the campus to suspend operations. He encourages the various departments to review their own emergency response plans and if they do not have one, consider a template version available from the Division of Public Safety.

Departments should identify essential personnel and how to best get in contact with them in the event of an emergency. And, is there a succession plan in place if someone is not able to work?

"We still have issues to address, some human resources-related issues," Mecum said. For example, if the university decides to suspend classes or close some offices, how will that time be looked at?

A copy of the plan is available on the division's Web site, www.ocep.uiuc.edu.

Mecum said he welcomes any suggestions.