With only one freeway entrance and exit to Moorpark College, evacuating the campus in an emergency could be difficult.

With that in mind, Moorpark College officials are taking a new look at the school's emergency plan.

Ray Di Guilio, vice president of business services, said the college hired West Coast Consulting to improve the school's emergency response plan. It covers everything from designating emergency and safety personnel to complying with federal and state laws and evacuation procedures.

Manuals will be given next month to 45 college staff members assigned to specific areas of responsibility in the emergency plan. A series of training sessions will be held on campus, and an emergency drill is planned during the spring term.

Di Guilio said the new emergency plan will address students' concerns that they were unsure about what to do in a situation such as a fire or a shooting on campus.

"It's always in the back of my mind when I come to this campus: What will happen if something happened here," said Dave Green, a Moorpark College student. "It's hard enough to get off this campus on a normal day. I can't imagine what it would be like if our lives were in danger."

School officials met in September with representatives from the county Fire Department to address a Stay In Place program on campus in the event of a fire or other campus emergency.

"In most emergency type situations, leaving the campus in not the proper action to take by students or staff. Staying in place is the correct response to these type of emergencies," Di Guilio said. "However, if we did need to evacuate the campus, clearly that would be a challenging event since we have many cars on campus and a very limited ability to have them all access the only freeway entrance and exit to the college site."

The Moorpark College campus police and Maintenance and Operations Department are reviewing various courses of action in the event of an evacuation, including traffic control and the use of barricades and other traffic control devices at Collins and Campus Park drives. One option being considered is to convert campus entrance traffic lanes into exit lanes. Instead of the current one lane, there would be up to three lanes exiting the campus.

Di Guilio said that would greatly change the current dynamics of the traffic pattern. He said the college would coordinate with the Moorpark Police Department, which has jurisdiction over all off-campus roads.

"We also have to be sensitive to the adjoining neighbors since it would be likely they, too, would be trying to evacuate," he added.

The school has avoided evacuations in the past by closing the campus in advance.

Jeanne Brown, public information officer for the college, said school officials decided to close the campus for two days in October because of the poor air quality, high wind warnings and continued threat from the nearby Ranch fire and other fires in the area. America's Teaching Zoo at the college evacuated 120 animals to the Camarillo Animal Shelter as a precaution.

Di Guilio said that while the emergency plan is being revised, the college is still prepared in the event of an emergency.

"Short of an absolute major evacuation order on very short notice, we believe we could handle an orderly evacuation on the campus with the current staff and processes that we have in place at this time."