Risk Management

Baylor is one of the few institutions in the country with a Director dedicated to overseeing international health, safety, and security concerns: The Director of Global Safety and Security also serves a first responder to any emergency abroad involving Baylor students, faculty or staff on university-sponsored travel. The Director works in concert with other Baylor units that administer or support international travel, to monitor, assess and mitigation foreseeable risks associated with university-sponsored travel.

Risk monitoring and assessment

The Director of Global Safety and Security is charged with monitoring world events and will, when applicable, work with any sponsoring administrative units to communicate risks and mitigation strategies. We regularly monitor a variety of open-source news reports and U.S. Department of State (U.S. DOS) travel information, such as Travel Advisories and Alerts as well as information provided by our evacuation assistance provider and third-party intelligence providers. Read more about how we interpret U.S. DOS advisories.

If the information learned above could impact the health or safety of travelers in that location, we may also do one or more of the following in our effort to gather information and assess the situation:

• Talk with a regional security analyst at the Overseas Security Advisory Council or a Regional Security Officer in the applicable U.S. embassy or consulate abroad.
• Review analysis provided by other security assessment providers.
• Read open source consular documents produced by other governments, such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
• Confer with health and safety experts at our peer institutions operating in the same location.
• Contact the U.S. offices of the study abroad programs or providers located in the affected countries as well as our partner and affiliate universities abroad in addition to any Baylor faculty or staff involved in the experience (here or abroad).
• Discuss the situation with Baylor (or other institution’s) faculty experts on this location.

When conditions warrant programmatic changes with regards to a study abroad program, including the possible modification or suspension of the experience, steps are taken as outlined in Program Modifications or Suspensions due to Health and Safety Concerns.

The International Travel Committee (ITC) is chaired by the Director of Global Safety and Security and charged with evaluating the safety of programs and sites in areas of potential heightened risk, and have the ability to recommend program revision or cancellation to address safety and security concerns. 

Risk mitigation

All university-sponsored travelers, such as study abroad, missions, and non-credit, non-study abroad travelers, are required to participate in some type of pre-departure orientation or educational program that discusses health and safety. Most sponsors of group travel also provide a country-specific orientation and/or additional print or web-based materials in which heath and safety precautions are outlined.