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March 18, 2008, 10:29 PM ET
Campus Security Is More Than 'Serve and Protect'
Days after 9/11, George Washington University, located only minutes from the Pentagon decided that in addition to its conventional campus police, it needed a full-time person thinking about security in the cosmic sense. We recruited a retired Navy captain who had during his career been among other things responsible for the administration of the Norfolk Naval Station. A Ph.D., he has both an academic and applied sensibility and brings us a perspective that goes far beyond the historic protect and serve that we had looked to from our own university police department and the city’s Metropolitan District Police. Our campus is near the State Department and the White House, each with their own security people, which provides a comfort factor.
Reader’s Digest recently released a ranking of some of the “safest and least secure” college campuses — this followed on the shooting at Northern Illinois University. They have a roster of 134 institutions graded A, B, and C. I myself can’t completely understand how the list was established. So, for example, one would think that a small liberal arts college in Iowa ought to be as safe as it gets but somehow it got a grade of B.
GW hasn’t rested on its laurels. My successor early in his tenure appointed a presidential task force to try and make absolutely sure that everything that could be done had been done. He was prompted by the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. Coordination of people, programs, additional budget allocations for personnel and equipment are all being brought to the job. Interestingly, education is an important part of the initiative. It is vital that all members of the campus community have the agenda on their minds and behave accordingly. Further upgrading and modernization of facilities and equipment is underway. Mental health and violence procedures are being studied. And the programs at GW aren’t unique. Increasingly all universities are being asked questions by parents accompanying their high-school children on campus tours about what sort of plans they have in case of crises. How many police officers did you say you had on campus?
Finding an occasional pipe bomb in a dormitory or threats of one sort or another are inspirational as well. It’s not the sort of subject I thought I would have to address when I considered becoming a college administrator. These are melancholy matters but no less significant for that, and increasingly a part of every university president’s agenda.
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