Calvin College Approves New Gun Policy
April 14, 2008-Calvin College has approved a new Use of Force policy that includes allowing, for the first time in school history, select members of the campus safety staff to carry guns.
At the same time, the new policy formalizes the long-standing ban on the possession of weapons on campus by students, faculty and others.
Bill Corner, Calvin College campus safety, says he believes everyone on campus will be safer as a result of the new policy.
The Use of Force policy gives step-by-step details on the force considered necessary and reasonable in responding to various types of scenarios with the goals in each case being to save lives, prevent injury and overcome resistance. It also spends a lot of time talking about training, which Corner said is the critical component to the whole plan.
"The policy requires regular training," he said. "It doesn't work without the training."
Supervisors authorized to carry a firearm will be tested four times a year and will undergo tests for marksmanship and drills that test their ability to react in specific circumstances.
In addition, said Corner, supervisors who have been authorized to carry a firearm will all have been former law enforcement officers employed by a public law enforcement agency who left such agency while in good standing. In addition, all will be required to possess a valid State of Michigan concealed carry weapons permit, and will all have passed required background checks and psychological evaluations.
Corner noted that how campus safety was equipped to protect the campus has become of increasing interest to a wide variety of people connected to the college, including students, parents and employees. "We need to be able to respond to a threat in a safe and timely manner," he said. "Now we can."
About half of the colleges in Michigan allow campus safety personnel to carry guns. Weapons policies have increasingly been under review on college campuses since last year's shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech.
In recent weeks, Corner has led both incident command system training for the college.
A 1989 Calvin graduate, Corner returned to his alma mater in 2005 as director of campus safety. In fact, it was a stint as a student worker in the campus safety department at Calvin that launched Corner on his eventual career path, one that included 14 years with the Grand Rapids Police Department.
Since his return to Calvin, he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to make Calvin's already-safe campus even safer. He's placed a strong emphasis on educating people on Calvin's campus about how to make themselves safer. And in doing so he began to worry that one of the populations not as safe as it could be was his own officers.
Corner expects that the new measures will be in place by September 2008.
For the full story, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/use-of-force.htm
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Chris Meehan News and Media Relations Christian Reformed Church in North America www.crcna.org