Campus safety summit planned

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The one-day session will be held at Ohio State University.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — At least two Youngstown State University police officers and the associate director of housing and residence life are expected to participate in the first Summit on Ohio College Campus Safety and Security on Wednesday.

Gov. Ted Strickland directed Eric D. Fingerhut, Ohio's chancellor of higher education, to form a Task Force on Campus Security after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, and holding summits to seek out "best practice" ideas from Ohio colleges and universities is part of that task force's work.

The one-day session will be held at Ohio State University, and a spokesman for Fingerhut said representatives from every public and private college and university in the state are expected to attend.

What the task force learns at the summit is expected to be part of its final report to the governor.

Danielle Meyer, associate director of housing and residence life at YSU, will attend the summit. YSU Police Chief John J. Gocala said that he along with Lt. Mark Adovasio and Sgt. Michael Cretella from his department are expected to participate.

"They just want to make Ohio campuses safer," Gocala said, pointing out that YSU served on the task force response committee.

Emergency response plans will be required from all schools, he said, adding that YSU has had one in place for years, although it has had to be "tweaked" from time to time as conditions dictate. A task force committee is being formed to help schools draft or revise their plans, if assistance is required, he said.

YSU has a sworn officer police force of 23 people and has 185 part-timers, many of whom are Youngstown police officers or county sheriff's deputies, he said. Many smaller schools don't have the ability to maintain a full-time security force and those are the ones that might need assistance in drafting crisis plans, Gocala said.

Special training, such as crisis intervention, and who will pay for it, is also an issue the task force must address, he said.

Thursday, July 26, 2007