Campus Safety Task Force Minutes June 19, 2007
Governor’s Task Force on Campus Safety Meeting
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky
June 19, 2007
Meeting Notes
Members Present: Gail Minger, Bill Payne, Richard Peddicord, Ed Sergent, Joe Cline, Gary Cox, Teresa Barton, Rick Benningfield, Travis Manley, Jon Akers, Wayne Hall, Joe Dittman and Barbara Pauley.
Members Absent: Rodney Raby, Mike Haney, Eric King and Michael LaCount.
Guests Present: Jeffrey Allison with the Department of Homeland Security and Michael Priddy.
• Gail Minger began by calling the meeting to order. She asked if anyone had anything they would like to discuss about the report.
• Ed Sergent asked about the status of the draft.
• Mrs. Minger asked if everyone received the draft outline that was e-mailed by Barbara Pauley. She said that they are planning to use this outline when drafting the report. This outline answered specific tasks laid out in the Governor’s Executive Order and included recommendations. Mrs. Minger informed the task force that she wanted to set a date for which all information for the report would need to be turned in to Barbara Pauley to compile.
• Teresa Barton stated that she was not able to comment right now on the draft outline without seeing an example of some of the content of the report. She said that she would like to see some content before judging the outline.
• Mrs. Minger stated that she would like to have two working meetings in Aug.; either Aug. 23 and 24 or Aug. 27 and 28. The date will be determined and all task force members will be informed.
• Mrs. Minger informed the task force that the Council on Postsecondary Education has developed a Web-based reporting program for the Michael Minger Act. This program will allow all universities to report their statistics in a timelier, easier and more efficient way. Mrs. Minger asked Ed Sergent to show the task force an example of this new Web program.
• Mr. Sergent presented the screens that are proposed for the new system. He stated that the reporting system will be accessible through the CPE Web site. Each university will be given its own username and password. CPE will be holding several training sessions this summer to teach university personnel how to use the new system.
• Travis Manley asked if there was still a section where the universities can input footnotes. Mr. Sergent said that a footnote section is still available with the new system.
• Mrs. Minger thanked Mr. Sergent for introducing this new system to the task force. She then introduced Jeffrey Allison, assistant director of the Office of Domestic Preparedness at the Department of Homeland Security.
• Mr. Allison began his presentation by giving some background information about his career and stating how he ended up in his current position. In December of 2001, he realized that there was not one agency that was responsible for campus security issues. The Office of Domestic Preparedness at the Dept. of Homeland Security assumed this responsibility. Within this office, they formed IACLEA along with many other agencies.
• Mr. Allison told the task force that his office is working on a comprehensive study about rampage shootings on college campuses. This study was commissioned before the Virginia Tech shootings.
• Mr. Allison also reported that he wants to implement review teams on college campuses that communicate about mental issues among students in order to prevent problems.
• Mr. Allison told the task force that there are several initiatives at the FBI in regards to campus security issues. Of all the joint terrorism task forces across the country, 16 have campus law enforcement officials on them, including an officer from UK and U of L. Mr. Allison would like to see this number doubled in size.
• Mr. Allison suggested that campus officials look into Infragard membership, FBI’s outreach network. He also suggested that they look into the Peace Out program, which examines off-campus security issues.
• Mr. Allison stated that you have to “institutionalize success by assigning ownership.” He said that this could be achieved by having an official entity responsible for campus security issues.
• The task force members each received a folder with materials from the topics that Mr. Allison touched on during his presentation.
• Mrs. Minger thanked Mr. Allison for speaking, and then introduced Michael Priddy, who was the victim of a dorm fire several years ago.
• Mr. Priddy addressed the task force and read a statement about how his injuries from the fire have affected his life.
• After Mr. Priddy’s statement, Mrs. Minger closed the meeting by reminding everyone that the final report is due to the Governor on Sept. 7. The meeting was adjourned.
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