Resilience

Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from, or adjust easily to, misfortune or change. UT Dallas continuously works to build resilience into its operations to better serve members of its campus community and beyond. The resilience initiative represents the commitment of all members of the campus, including various projects and awareness education. UT Dallas seeks to be ready for unexpected disruptions while protecting life safety and restoring services as quickly as possible.

A set of priorities, outlined above, was confirmed with the University president and cabinet.

Not only is planning to recover from disruptions the right thing to do and consistent with our values, but it is also required by the State of Texas, UT System Administration and local policies at UT Dallas.

Some have described planning for a disruptive event as a journey, rather than a destination. Plans can be improved continuously to better serve the University. The current Business Continuity Plan remains in effect, though the resilience initiative launched in 2024 supports further improvement to the plan, with a focus on schools/departments/units considered to be most critical by the BCP working group.

Emergency Response is the most immediate type of program, focused on the safety and security of individuals and property during and following a dangerous event.

Business Continuity Planning builds on our strong Emergency Response program by documenting plans for schools/departments/units to restore critical services, eventually restoring all services to normal (or close to normal) operations. Events that require Business Continuity Plan activation are expected to last 2 weeks or longer. Disaster Recovery focuses on restoring Information Technology (IT) services such as Internet access, workstations, servers, and applications after a disruption. Because our University is increasingly dependent on IT services, recovering them can be critical to meeting the needs of stakeholders. However, when IT services are offline, UT Dallas will seek to perform as much work as possible using offline methods.

Every part of the university contributes value in some way and leaders should consider how to restore services in the event of a disruption. However, certain areas provide the most critical services which protect life safety, for example, or must be functioning to support the operation of other dependent areas. Therefore, University management considers how to prioritize and coordinate recovery efforts in a sequence that favors the most critical areas earlier in the process. As a result, more planning documentation may be requested from schools/departments/units identified as critical by the BCP working group, while less critical ones will not be asked to create as much documentation.

Achieving resilience is a shared opportunity that requires shared effort. There are parts of the planning process which are addressed by University management on behalf of all schools/departments/units. However, there are aspects to planning that are best performed by the schools/departments/units directly, where their experience and expertise will allow the best recovery outcomes. Documentation from both university management as well as schools/departments/units are then combined into the overall Business Continuity Plan.

The resilience initiative and the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) process that supports it are being promoted by the Office of Institutional Risk & Safety Programs and the Information Security Office. This BCP working group will contact appropriate school/department/unit personnel at various times throughout each year, as needed, to collect Business Continuity Plan information and help with plan maintenance.  

The Office of Institutional Risk & Safety Programs and Information Security Office play a supporting role in the coordination of Business Continuity Planning, but they do not have the experience and expertise in each area to sufficiently create all documentation. Instead, a shared responsibility approach is used to collaborate; useful and relevant documentation will need to be provided by the schools/departments/units, when requested.

Activating the Business Continuity Plan to recover from a disruption is not a small decision. Specific members of the university, including its President, may declare activation of the plan. Disruptive events expected to last two weeks or longer are more likely to result in plan activation.

Emergency communications at UT Dallas are broadcast using text messaging, email and the University’s website. Please check with your supervisor or department head for additional information in the event of a disruption. When in doubt or when lacking communication options, the University encourages you to make the best decisions you can in favor of preserving life safety.

UT Dallas strives to review its Business Continuity Plan documentation annually and update as appropriate, for example, when significant organization changes have occurred.

Taking part in the University’s planning process is both the right thing to do, required by law and policy and subject to review by independent parties such as UT Dallas Internal Audit. While schools/departments/units will have differing levels of engagement in the planning process, all should consider how best to meet the needs of stakeholders in the event of a disruption.