Over an eight year period beginning in 1999, several high profile crisis events impacted the normal day-to-day operations of certain educational institutions within the Unites States. Incidents such as the Columbine High School massacre, the September 11^th terrorist attacks on New York City, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the Virginia Tech shootings have dramatically illustrated the vulnerability of public institutions to natural and human-caused disasters. In addition, such events have dramatically underscored the need for comprehensive crisis planning and preparation among institutions of higher education. However, recent studies have indicated that, in spite of the tragic events of the recent past, many colleges are still unprepared to deal with a crisis situation. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to assess the preparedness levels of Texas community colleges with residential student populations and to explore factors that may influence the administrators of these organizations to adequately prepare to respond to crisis situations. The researcher analyzed crisis response plans from 19 Texas community colleges as well as data pertaining to Texas community college administrators' personal perceptions of preparedness levels at their institutions and factors influencing those levels.

Based upon the findings of this study, it appears that administrators of Texas community colleges with residential student populations have not developed adequate crisis and/or emergency response plans. Additionally, it was found that top leadership of an institution provides a significant influence on any planning and preparedness efforts conducted by the administrators of the organization. It is recommended that organizational leaders take the opportunity to examine preparation activities recommended by expert agencies in comparison to activities already conducted by their administrators and make full preparedness a priority objective for their organizations.