FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Dede Hamm, an instructor in human nutrition and hospitality innovation at the U of A, created a special topics course last fall, Life Safety & Risk Mitigation for Events & Venues, which is now becoming a regular course.

The course is primarily for students in the hospitality innovation program, which is housed in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Science's School of Human Environmental Sciences, but is open to anyone.

The special topics course led to the new regular course, Venue Management, which teaches students how to identify and mitigate risks for events and venues.

"The course teaches students basic event safety, but it also makes them more aware of their own surroundings," said Hamm. "The goal is to create a culture of safety at events by starting with future event planners. If we can teach them now to think about their own safety and their responsibility to protect others, they are more likely to plan safe events for guests once they're in the industry."

Highlights from the special topics course to be incorporated into the Venue Management course, which will be offered beginning in fall 2018, include:

• Legal duty of care and due diligence in risk planning for events and venues.
• Key points from the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code 101.
• Study of previous incidents such as the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island and the Hillsborough soccer stadium incident in the United Kingdom.
• Visits to the University Theatre in the Fine Arts Center (or other venues) and discussion with personnel on how to identify potential issues in a venue, basic sound and lighting management, and how to review drawings of a venue to understand its layout and relation to NFPA code.
• Visits with UAPD officers on how to communicate and work with authorities on events along with CPR and AED training.

For more information, contact Hamm at corahamm@uark.edu.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.