UR commission: Arm some Medical Center security officers
Citing safety concerns, a commission of University of Rochester officials has recommended providing 38 public safety officers at UR's Medical Center with firearms.
"It is a major change in our campus culture to arm our Department of Public Safety officers, even in the limited way recommended by the commission," UR President Joel Seligman wrote Thursday in an email to students, faculty and staff.
And Seligman said: "I believe that the Security Commission Report is highly sensitive to the significance of this change, but it also recognizes that while our core River Campus generally is quite safe, parts of our university, as with many of our peer institutions, have had to take steps to deter threats to our students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors."
The four senior officers of the Department of Public Safety — the chief, deputy chief, patrol commander and commander of investigations — would also be armed at all times, including when they visit the Arts, Sciences and Engineering and the Eastman School of Music campuses on a routine basis.
"These officers would be expected to respond to any serious and potentially life-threatening situation as rapidly as possible," said Seligman.
He noted that, as effective as UR's relationships are with the Rochester Police Department and other local police departments, a time lapse inevitably exists between the reporting of an incident and the response.
Seligman's email notes that between 2013 and 2015, an average of 230 knives, eight guns and 33 other weapons were confiscated each year at the Medical Center, which includes Strong Memorial Hospital.
UR looks at permitting its officers to carry handguns
By contrast, on all the other UR campuses combined, an average of nine knives, one gun and seven other weapons were confiscated each year between 2013 and 2015.
Seligman said that "the security concerns in the Medical Center, particularly in its Emergency Department, are quite different than they are elsewhere in our university."
The email includes a link to the commission's report. Seligman will make a final decision after considering comments from members of the university community, who have until Sept. 23 to comment. Seligman will also participate in town hall-style meetings on Sept. 12 and 13.
Lina Zigelyte, a UR graduate student in visual and cultural studies, said the commission's recommendations were made too fast, without adequate input from faculty and students from the River Campus.
She also criticized the eight-member commission for being made up of just administrators.
Last spring, Zigelyte was among the students, faculty and staff who established the Facebook page, UR Coalition for a Gun-Free Campus.
"Guns are not making America a safe place," she said.
The commission urges that the 38 officers who would be armed at the Medical Center, address safety concerns in the Emergency Department on a 24-hour basis and include a mobile unit to patrol the exterior of the Medical Center.
There are a total of 180 full-time staff members of the Department of Public Safety on all of the UR campuses.
Department of Public Safety officers would not be armed until they received additional training, including on such matters as bias and diversity and de-escalation of situations without weapons deployment.
Seligman established the commission in January to conduct an update of a 2011 commission report on public safety. The new commission has been chaired by Holly Crawford, senior vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer.
The commission was to determine what, if anything, has changed over the past five years. Seligman said back then that the peace officers would "not carry firearms or tasers."
In 2013, some UR public safety officers were trained as peace officers — authorized to carry batons and pepper gel as well as make arrests.
Increasingly, universities are arming officers.
Rochester Institute of Technology announced in December that a handful of its campus police will have access to firearms to halt any violent threats on campus, if they were to occur. Implementation of the change is expected later this year.
Both Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli and Brighton Police Chief Mark Henderson, according to the commission, are supportive of arming peace officers at UR but said that proper training was essential.
Seligman said that peer data from academic medical hospitals found that 19 out of 23 have at least some armed officers.