Department of Safety and Security

There were 13 participants

The meeting started at 3:30 in the Collegiate Room. Everyone introduced themselves at the beginning of the meeting and signed in.

II. We made the news (in a positive way) Dorothy Smith started the meeting by updating everyone on the article in "The Southern" regarding the arrest of a repeated trespasser on campus. She also reported she had followed up on this by presenting awards to the students that had reported his presence on campus.

An award was also sent to an alert local cab driver that reported suspicious activity when on campus. His efforts resulted in the arrest of individuals involved in burglarizing cars.

III. Parking. Adequate parking continues to be a problem on campus and per Tommy Young, Miller Hall will be opening in mid-February and we will be getting back the parking spaces on the east side of Columbia Way.

Dorothy has been selected to meet with the Presidential candidates and she had an opportunity to ask the first candidate, Dr. Durrance, about his thoughts on a parking garage. He said it was something to consider.

Carmen Gauthier told the group that a parking garage was discussed at the last Board of Trustees meeting and that a parking garage is part of the plan for the new Student Center.

The issue of having designated spaces available for motorcycles was then brought up. After discussion of security issues, and efficient use of space the subject was again tabled.

IV. Lighting. Dorothy reported that Phil Cline's crew trimmed the trees over Christmas and this has given Safety a much better view with the cameras. Betty Calhoun also reported that the trees were trimmed near ROTC. Dorothy talked to Tim Hurner in the Citrus Department about the citrus trees on campus and he indicated he will be glad to talk to anyone about how these trees and their trimming are handled. He indicated that the trees will be trimmed after the fruit has been picked. Matthew Carter indicted that as trees die near the walkways they will not be replaced but will be removed by that department after they determine why they died. The Citrus Department is responsible for all trimming of citrus trees on campus. The question was raised regarding the fruit under the trees. We were told we no longer have fruit flies so it will not create a problem.

Lewis Etheridge told the committee that lights are being repaired as blue sheets come in. Stephen Kissinger reported that the emergency lighting in Jenkins is out as a result of the power outage on Sunday. Jeff Simmons asked if FSC has a plan in place for an extended loss of power on campus. He was advised that FSC does have an Emergency Preparedness Plan in place. When a power outage occurs dispatchers in Safety will contact Lakeland Electric and Lewis told the group that there is a VIP number for Lakeland Electric in an emergency situation.

V. Building Access. Randy Bevins reported that H-103 now has swipe card access and that student's cards have been updated. Mary raised the question as to how we handle removing this access once students have it. Randy advised them that students cards are disabled when the graduate and for summer break and each semester professors provide us with a list of who needs access. Dorothy indicated we may want to look at a system to interface information from the Registrars office for this purpose.

As soon as the swipe card equipment comes in Randy will be installing it in Miller Hall.

VI. Problems. Two problems we deal with on campus are alcohol and domestic violence and Dorothy reported that Judicial handles these issues on campus. Chad Smith has left for a job in the private sector and Brandy Bowen will be assuming his responsibilities in Judicial. Mavra Kear reported that the alcohol policy is being revised at this time by the Alcohol and other Drug ad hoc Committee. Jeff Smith brought up the issue of how to handle the false fire alarms at Hollis. After lengthy discussion regarding various options it was decided that Dorothy will talk with Dr. Obermeyer and Terry Dennis about the colleges liability. One idea presented was to bring this up at a monthly hall meeting and get ideas from the students affected by these false alarms.

The policy on skateboarders was also discussed as a safety issue. We may need to develop a no skateboarding policy on campus to be consistent. It was then asked if this should also apply to in-line skates and no decision was made.

VII. Statistics. All committee members received a copy of statistics compiled by Dorothy from the Officers daily reports for September - December 2003 showing the level of activity in a number of areas.

VIII. C.A.S.T. Dorothy gave an update of the status of C.A.S.T. Last semester we had a student working during day for the first time and it worked out very well. He has now graduated but we have a couple scheduled and in training to work days this semester. Dorothy plans to get them more involved with such things as reports, student surveys, and checking on if the blue phones are operational. Having them do bicycle patrols was discussed as well as making sure they have some sort of ID to identify them as a member of C.A.S.T.

IX. Concerns from the committee. Jeff Simmons asked the committee about the possibility of storing paint ball-air soft guns on campus preferably in Safety which is manned 24-7. He said these guns look like real guns but have an orange tip and are to be used off campus at various paint call fields in the area. The guns would need to be in a secure location and students would have to check them out and back in after use. Jeff suggested a system that students would need to give a 3-day notice before checking out a gun and that their club could possibly buy a locker for storage. Dorothy was not comfortable with Safety storing them for a number of reasons and will discuss liability issues with Dr. Obermeyer and Terry Dennis. Roberta mentioned the possibility of storing them at ROTC but a problem would be limited access of weekends when there is no staff on duty.

Mavra Kear asked about the status of installing non-skid strips in the Citrus Building. Lewis told her that over Christmas break they had installed shark skin texture paint to the area.

X. Preacher. Dorothy updated everyone on the latest with the "preacher" who has been showing up on campus and harassing students. She contacted the State Attorney's Office to see if there was anything we could do and was informed it's his constitutional right of freedom of speech. Campus Safety will monitor the situation and encourage students to not give him an audience.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30. The next meeting to be held on Tuesday, March 16th at 3:30 in the Collegiate Room.