Universities have fallen victim to many disasters over the years, ranging from those caused by natural hazards to campus violence. Most institutions have disaster plans in place and attempt to update those plans on a regular basis. Yet historically, universities do a poor job in testing those emergency operation plans as part of their routine preparation and mitigation practices. In July 2008, Philadelphia University participated in a full-scale, multi-agency exercise in order to test their disaster plan. The purpose of this study was to examine the lessons learned from the drill, analyze the benefits of the drill, and determine if the drill brought value to the university.

Interviews were conducted with 21 of the 25 university personnel who participated in the exercise. The interviews were taped and analyzed with the use of qualitative methods and content analysis techniques.

The emerging themes from the study included the benefits and values of the drill, the lessons learned, how perceptions were changed after the drill, views about the current level of disaster preparedness, and recommendations for improving disaster management practices.

The results demonstrated that the disaster drill was a valuable learning experience for the participants. The university benefited from the drill in multiple ways, learned many lessons, and discovered ways to begin improving their disaster management practices.