BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER / PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 21, 2017, The Citizens' Voice
Misercorida University will start arming security officers with handguns on its 123-acre campus in Dallas and Dallas Township, the university announced Monday.
The university’s board of trustees approved the decision at its meeting Friday.
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Officials say it’s a proactive response that’s not a reaction to a specific incident on campus or in the Dallas area.
“This is reflecting things that have happened nationally and the concern for our students,” University President Thomas J. Botzman said. “We had a lot of discussion about what are the best ways to make sure our campus is safe for our students, all of us who work here and all who visit us.”
Other area colleges have also decided to arm security personnel — Luzerne County Community College in 2013, Wilkes University in 2014 and King’s College in 2015. Misercodia’s campus is located in a more rural part of Luzerne County.
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“You look at national events, these incidents are not always occurring in urban areas,” Botzman said. “They’re occurring in rural and suburban areas.”
The most deadly college campus shooting in recent years was in October 2015 at Umpqua Community College, which is located on a large, rural campus in Oregon. Chris Harper-Mercer, a student at the school, fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in a classroom. Police responding to the incident engaged Harper-Mercer in a brief shootout. After being wounded, Harper-Mercer committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Full-time enrollment at Misericordia is 1,898, and 136 faculty members are full-time, according to the university. About 1,000 students live on campus.
“I feel very safe on campus here, even without this approval (to arm officers) happening,” Misericordia junior Michael Gombita said. “In terms of the approval, it’s to help us be more safe and feel more safe, it’s being proactive with what’s going on around the world.”
Gombita is studying communications and is from Equinunk in Wayne County. He helps run Misericordia’s orientation program for incoming students.
The Misericordia officers who will carry firearms are retired law enforcement officers with weapons certification, Director of Campus Safety and Security Bob Zavada said. Campus safety officers will not have arrest powers, but will now be better equipped to take immediate action during initial moments of an event.
“We all are established members of the campus community, which is very important because part of what went into this whole plan was our officers would have intimate knowledge of the campus itself, which even a responding police officer from outside the area, may not have,” Zavada said. “And we just didn’t want to have any of the gaps in any response plan that we had.”
The university provides campus security 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It employs 16 full-time campus safety officers and 27 overall. Of those, 21 have some level of previous law enforcement-related experience.
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