Safety and Security Committee Meeting Minutes
Meeting date: Tuesday, August 23
Meeting venue: Amherst 2307
Members Present:
· Chief Russell Dove, Public Safety, Chair
· Tim Rhoads, SME Faculty, Recorder
· Officer Sydenstricker
· Ron Parker, B&G
· Deanne McDaniel, Student Services
· Mike Fein, Library
· David Lightfoot, IT
· Lewis Bryant, VP of Finance
Call to order:
· Chief Dove welcomed new members to the committee: Lewis Bryant, Ron Parker, Tim Rhoads
· The Chief asked for volunteers to serve as committee recorder. Tim Rhoads accepted.
· The committee decided that the existing mission statement and committee goals should be carried over from the 2015-2016 year.
· The 2015-2016 committee objectives were reviewed, evaluated and prioritized for continued attention in the 2016-2017 academic year. Those objectives considered for carry over into the 2016-2017 year are discussed below in order of priority.
1. Goal: Seek funding for notification/alert board(s) to be placed at the entrances to the CVCC Campus. Discussion: Options discussed included placement of boards at both ends of Harvard street, or a single board at the entrance to campus off of Harvard street. Again, cost is a factor making the second option favorable. Deanne McDaniel pointed out that a size restriction may exist considering the presence of Liberty’s digital board at the intersection of Harvard street and Wards road.
2. Goal: Seek to implement the School Dude Emergency Management (EM) Module. Discussion: The topic of a crisis manager software system was revisited. This software would serve to inform potential responders of floor plans, presence and location of chemicals and other potential hazards, etc. School Dude was the system proposed last year. Lewis Bryant suggested that the School Dude system may be cost prohibitive at this time, and that we should consider more cost effective options. David Lightfoot suggested that we might use the existing intranet. Lewis also suggested that we communicate with emergency responders (such as the fire department) to see if they have a similar system in place. If so, another system on campus would be unnecessary. The point was made that power and/or internet interruption would render such a system useless, although this would be difficult to circumvent.
3. Goal: Seek funding for an additional eight (8) Code Blue devices to be installed on the Campus.
Discussion: Again, cost is a significant factor. These boxes are expensive. Disagreement over the need for these boxes was present in the group. David Lightfoot suggested that there might be a more cost efficient alternative. However, where the Code Blue boxes allow 2-way communication, cheaper alternatives that were discussed would only serve as a beacon and would not allow the individual in the field to speak to potential responders. The point of power interruption was reiterated here, but solar power capability was offered as a means to circumvent this problem.
· Chief Dove reported on various updates and ongoing efforts on campus.
1. Updated radios which will allow communication with off-campus, first responders such as fire department, medical teams, police department, etc.
2. Continued updates of door locks; the goal is that all doors on campus will have internal locks.
3. The decision was made last year to include a student on the committee. A willing student was chosen, but they have a conflict with our meeting schedule this semester. The group decided to continue perusing student representation.
4. A hybrid functional full-scale security exercise will be held on campus in March, 2017 during spring break. This will include an active shooter scenario.
5. An additional Automatic External Defibrillator device was purchased using grant money from Firehouse Subs. This device will be placed in the lobby of the library. The eventual goal is to have a device in every campus building.
6. How do we motivate greater student participation in campus safety programs and efforts?
7. An additional Alertus device was placed in the multi-purpose room. Others were serviced and reinstalled.