The Olympian

Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Sophie Siemion Getting the police involved. In an effort to make emergency response more efficient, OC is working with the Bremerton Police Department to make them more familiar with the campus inside and out.

For the 2008 supplemental budget proposal unveiled Dec.18, Gov. Chris Gregoire is investing $14.3 million to enhance safety and security on the state's college and university campuses.
The governor's serious look at student, faculty and staff safety follows several incidents in 2007, including the death of a University of Washington employee by an ex-boyfriend and the mass shooting at Virginia Tech University in April.
"One thing parents shouldn't have to worry about is the safety of their children while they attend college," said Gregoire in her policy brief. "But in the past year, we have been reminded that our campuses are not immune from violence."
The financial focus will be divided into six main categories including installing or upgrading instant warning systems, helping first responders and prompting community notification.
In her new campus safety initiative, the governor also plans to introduce legislation that will make it mandatory that each state college and university update campus protocol for emergency preparedness and response procedures and provide students, faculty and staff access to this information regularly.
Although Olympic College is among the institutions that are looking to get financial support for improving its campuses safety, OC has already began to make changes for the future.
"OC is ahead of the game," said Rocky Wallace, safety and security supervisor.
Last spring, as part of a directive from OC President Dr. David Mitchell, a task force was assembled consisting of various administration and members of the Communications, Information and Technology, Facility and Safety and Security departments.
"This task came down from the president," Wallace said. "To look at where OC's at now with what current policies we have in place and what do we need to do to address the overall safety for the campus."
The Emergency Preparedness Task Force viewed a wide range of security issues that they felt needed more review and in some cases, tasks that had yet to be considered. Included were communication management, building-by-building plans and close work with first responders like the Bremerton police and fire departments.

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