The motion to arm security on campus, specifically in Buildings 5 and 9, has not moved forward yet, according to Jay Tiefenthaler, director of campus security at DMACC.
“Currently we are still in the evaluation phase,” Tiefenthaler said about the proposal.
He said he would like to see more student forums relating to the matter, but it is up to administration to schedule them.
“Keep your eyes and ears open,” Tiefenthaler said about future student forums. “I’m encouraging the board to figure out what works. The logistics are the hard part, we want to make it accessible, what’s the best time frame and day of the week for the most participation and input. It’s fascinating and interesting to hear all the different inputs and options students have.”
This year he has interviewed 12 community colleges across the Midwest about their decisions to arm. He said about half of the schools had armed their security and there is an upward tendency to arm on-campus officers. Some took action recently but some began arming years ago. Like DMACC, schools that are yet to arm security are considering their options.
Tiefenthaler is currently working with Career Advantage personnel on determining what the expectation of incoming students is for campus security as well.
“Ultimately my goal [with] interviewing these other colleges . . . working on students’ perspective . . . is to give all this information to the board to decide what is the best path for DMACC.” Since March 2018, Tiefenthaler said he has presented to SDV 108 classes to educate them on emergency procedures and find perspectives he can relay to the administration.
Tiefenthaler said options include: Keeping things the way they are, having current security officers carry guns after proper training, or paying armed off-duty police officers to patrol campus.
What are your thoughts on arming security? Email us at chronicle@dmacc.edu.
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