(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa — After an hour-long debate Tuesday, the University of Iowa Faculty Council voted in favor of arming UI police.
By a 12-3 vote, the council solidified its support of a recommendation — from officials at the three Iowa regent universities — to give guns to the university force.
The UI started to review public-safety measures following the Virginia Tech shootings in April.
The University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate voted 11-3 last week against arming the police; the Iowa State University Faculty Senate is scheduled to vote next week.
A few UI Faculty Council members expressed concern about law-enforcement officers accidentally shooting someone, as was the case in 1996, when an Iowa City police officer shot and killed local artist Eric Shaw in his studio. The officer said he thought Shaw was holding a gun; he was holding a phone.
UI Faculty Council President Victoria Sharp said the group’s decision will provide “positive guidance” to UI President Sally Mason, who plans to submit a report on the issue to the state Board of Regents on Sept. 10.
The regents will discuss the matter at this month’s meeting.
Because the UI Faculty Senate will vote on the matter Sept. 11, the day after Mason’s proposal is due, Sharp said she will see if Mason can delay her proposal until after that vote.
“There is an open forum on Thursday, and [Mason] has been reaching out for advice from faculty and the community,” Sharp said. “But it is important for her to hear the [Faculty Senate’s] voice.”
The three state universities are the only schools in their conferences whose police forces do not carry guns.
Charles Green, the assistant vice president for the UI police, told the Faculty Council members that the university officers are not security guards, they are sworn police officers who have received the same training as the Iowa City police.
Although the UI’s officers can get permission to be armed in special situations, he noted that in an unexpected situation, they would be unprepared.
“If there was a shooting situation, my officers would be running out of the building with everyone else,” Green said. “They would be in more danger than anyone else — the gunman would take out that uniform first.”
He said he was losing top officers to other police departments because of the lack of resources.
“They are put in situations that armed police officers are put in all of the time, but they don’t have the appropriate protection,” he said. “If we decided not to arm them, I ask that we don’t put them in these unsafe situations.”
Faculty Council Vice President Michael O’Hara, one of the 12 to vote for the recommendation, said he held a lot of concerns before educating himself.
“I am now reassured that we would be better off rather than worse off,” he said. “This would bring us into the complete mainstream of America policing and campus policing.”