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In my personal opinion, the University of Idaho appears to be
taking a rational approach to this while NIC appears to be
freaking out about it. Bullet proof vests? Really? Arming their
security personnel? If a few retired police officers and enhanced
concealed carry permit holders frighten them so much I almost hate
to bring up the thought that criminals don't necessarily follow
the gun laws on campuses and that there might be people with guns
on campus RIGHT NOW! Let's hope that the NIC leadership doesn't
read this. Tanks are expensive.<br>
<br>
Paul<br>
<br>
On 05/23/2014 04:24 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:<br>
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<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of
today's (May 23, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div>
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<h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;
font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;
clear: both; line-height: 1.2;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; overflow: visible
!important;">After losing in Legislature, Idaho
college campuses adapting policies to new gun law</h1>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Public
colleges and universities in Idaho are getting ready
to comply with a new state law they strongly
opposed: allowing concealed weapons to be carried
on campus.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The law
takes effect July 1 and applies to people with an
enhanced license to carry concealed weapons, along
with retired law enforcement officers. College
leaders universally opposed the law, but pro-gun
rights lawmakers pushed it through the Legislature
this year.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now
college administrators and campus security
departments are preparing for the new reality: guns
in lecture halls, labs, offices, cafeterias –
everywhere but dormitories and entertainment venues
with seating for more than 1,000, like stadiums
and auditoriums.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We
intend to follow the law. Really we don’t discuss
the merits of the law. That was done, the law
passed. We’re talking about implementation,” said
Matt Dorschel, executive director of public safety
and security at the University of Idaho in Moscow.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Higher
education leaders are revising campus weapons
policies to comply with the new law, although bans
on openly carrying guns are expected to remain
in effect.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some
colleges also plan to beef up their security. North
Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene will provide its
security officers with bulletproof vests plus
training related to concealed weapon laws, and it
may expand its seven-person security force by one
full-time and one part-time position.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NIC also
is mulling whether to arm its security workers for
the first time, said Alex Harris, director of
student development.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible
!important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust:
auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I
don’t know if we’ll go that direction, but it’s
definitely out there and we’re considering it,”
Harris said.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another
option, he said, is to work with the Coeur d’Alene
Police Department to station a school resource
officer on campus, similar to the officers present
in middle and high schools.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All
of these measures are unforeseen expenses at a time
of budget cuts due to falling enrollment, Harris
said. NIC’s enrollment this year dropped 11 percent
from the previous school year – a trend that
corresponds to the improving economy.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
vests will cost about $8,000, and arming and
training security officers would cost $10,000 a
year. The new security officers, or a school
resource officer, would cost about $60,000 a year.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The
budget process this year, without this, has been
difficult for the campus as a whole,” Harris said.
“It does make for some tough decisions.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
12,000-student University of Idaho anticipates no
significant changes for its security force. The
Moscow Police Department can respond quickly to
emergencies on campus, and a university task force
implementing the new law is not likely to recommend
arming campus security, Dorschel said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We
don’t think that anything about the law would impact
our need to have other armed responders on campus,”
he said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NIC’s
College Senate, which includes faculty, staff and
students, approved new language for the school’s
weapons policy last week. The president’s Cabinet is
expected to take the changes to the board of
trustees Wednesday, and the board will vote on the
changes by the end of June.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The
policy is the easy part because basically we just
have to make sure we are abiding by the new state
law,” Harris said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
law allows colleges to continue to prohibit guns in
dormitories and public entertainment venues with a
seating capacity of at least 1,000. At NIC, that
covers three buildings: the student residence hall,
Christianson Gymnasium and the Schuler Performing
Arts Center in Boswell Hall.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s
not clear yet if the new law also extends to college
facilities off campus. For NIC, that includes its
Workforce Training Center in Post Falls and
satellite centers in Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry and
Kellogg. NIC is awaiting a legal opinion on that.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
UI task force is focused on updating the university
policy on weapons, such as identifying which
buildings would remain off-limits to guns, Dorschel
said. That includes residence halls for about 2,000
students, Memorial Gymnasium, the Kibbie Dome and a
ballroom in the student union building.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
task force also is looking at whether to provide
more places for licensed weapons holders to store
their guns at times they cannot carry them. And the
group is exploring whether employees may ask someone
if they are carrying a concealed weapon.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We
will make it clear that permit holders are not
required to disclose their status as a concealed
carry permit holder to another employee,”
Dorschel said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Both
colleges will distribute answers to common questions
about the new law, such as whether one should alert
authorities if they see a gun.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“In
general, we don’t want people to hesitate or to
assume,” Harris said. “We’re responsible for the
safety of our students and our employees, and if
that requires us having an uncomfortable
conversation with someone who has a permit, then
we’ll do it.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The
responsibilities of license holders to keep their
weapons concealed, and whether the law extends to
off-campus activities, are other points colleges
will attempt to address.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We
want to make sure we don’t ignore questions that we
get from our community about how this works in
practice,” Dorschel said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">People
have mixed feelings about guns on campus, Harris
said. Some believe the law will enhance safety
because those who are permitted to carry guns may be
able to respond to a threat, while others worry that
more armed responders will only complicate the job
of police and security officers.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also,
some employees have told the college they may be
more inclined to request a security officer attend
difficult conversations, such as terminating an
employee or talking with a student who is failing a
class, he said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I
think it’s a matter of taking the temperature once
this goes into effect and we start the fall semester
to see what things we need to address and how,”
Harris said.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom:
21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible
!important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust:
auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">North
Idaho College security officer Kelly Hopkins patrols
NIC Beach on Wednesday. The college is equipping its
security officers with bulletproof vests and is
considering arming them for the first time –
unforeseen expenses during falling enrollment and
budget cuts.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible
!important;"><img
src="cid:part1.00060106.09020503@yahoo.com"
alt="0523_idaho_weapons2_t1240.jpg"
id="9BDE9008-804B-4202-BB9D-4B1AB6A2CB07"
height="411" width="640"></p>
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------<br>
<br>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with
your pants on)</span></div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.moscowcares.com/"
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font
color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);"> </span></div>
<div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255,
255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255,
255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div>
</div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you
still.</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you
kill,</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);">- John Lennon</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255,
0);"> </span></div>
</div>
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