Sioux City Journal, IA
09-13-07
College presidents favor arming campus police
By Lee Iowa Newspapers
DES MOINES -- Presidents at Iowa's three state universities say they're in favor
of allowing trained campus police officers to carry firearms while on duty.
The recommendations from the presidents of Iowa State University, the
University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa were made public
Wednesday.
University officials waded into the debate over guns on campus after a shooting
spree that left dozens dead at Virginia Tech University last spring. Lawmakers
and others called for changes in current rules that prohibit campus police in Iowa
from going armed without presidential permission.
Proponents of the change argue that it would allow officers to respond more
quickly to deadly threats. With the presidents' wishes in hand, the Iowa Board of
Regents is expected to take up the issue at its meeting next week.
"As we learned from the tragedy in Virginia, things can happen fast, and officers
need to have the ability to intervene just as quickly," said state Sen. Pat Ward, RWest Des Moines, who led legislative efforts to arm campus officers. "These
officers need the proper tools to ensure they can effectively protect our young
people."
ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said in a letter to the Iowa Board of Regents
this week that the proposal has clear support from the student government, the
faculty senate and a poll of students.
"It is my judgment that in order to ensure that we continue to provide the safest
possible learning environment for our students, faculty, staff and visitors to our
campus, and understanding that there are increasing threats to our security, we
must provide the professional staff whose responsibility it is to ensure safety and
protection with all of the tools they need to effectively carry out their
responsibilities," Geoffroy said.
University of Northern Iowa President Benjamin Allen said he supports arming
officers, but with some stipulations.
Allen said officers should be required to requalify in the use of firearms at least
twice a year and should continue with annual training on topics such as
understanding and appreciating diversity issues, conflict resolution and
community-oriented policing.
Also, he has requested that the campus police and UNI Public Safety Advisory
Committee need to establish a more transparent external review process of all
situations where a campus officer draws or fires a weapon.
"The goal of any recommendation, with respect to protocols concerning campus
security, should be to increase the safety of the students, faculty, staff, parents
and visitors," Allen said in his letter, noting that the faculty senate and the United
Faculty Central Committee opposed allowing firearms. "The input from students,
and from parents, strongly suggests they prefer campus police officers be armed.
They indicated that students and others on campus would perceive the campus
to be safer if the police officers were armed."
At the University of Iowa, President Sally Mason also said that officers should
undergo rigorous training.
"The university embraces and celebrates openness, yet also understands that
there are people who will take advantage of that openness, including people with
weapons," Mason wrote in her recommendations.
Public safety directors at all three universities had called for arming police.
"This has been a long process and is an issue that takes a lot of thought and
effort from the entire campus community," said Dave Zarifis, UNI's public safety
director.
Reporters Emily Christensen of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and Dan
Gearino and Todd Dorman of the Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this
story.