Plan being devised for arming Nevada college staff members

RENO -- The university system's four police chiefs were given the green light Thursday to draft a plan to deputize faculty and staff volunteers.

A Board of Regents committee directed the police chiefs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College to develop guidelines and budgets to allow faculty and staff at the colleges to go through a police academy and carry firearms on campus.

The move came in the aftermath of the April shooting spree that left 33 people dead at Virginia Tech and amid concerns from Nevada college faculty, who have been almost universally opposed to the idea.

"I think you'd find very, very few faculty who would avail themselves to this," said Stephen Rock, Faculty Senate chairman at UNR. "The impact on departments, small departments, could be very significant."

The proposal was presented by Regent Stavros Anthony, a Las Vegas police captain, to prevent a Virginia Tech-like incident at one of Nevada's seven colleges or the Desert Research Institute.

Anthony said many faculty and staff who were opposed to the idea had a misconception of the plan. They were afraid guns would get into the hands of too many people, he said.

Under his proposal, university system employees could take leave from their normal jobs to go through a 21-week police academy and receive Nevada Peace Officers Standards and Training.

Applicants for the position would have to go through background checks and psychological tests, he said.

Each university would pay for its employees to go through the academy, estimated to cost $3,200 a person, according to Sandy Seda, police chief at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

After completing the academy, the employees would be under the direction of each school's police chief but would only be used when a person was on campus shooting at people.

Anthony said the proposal would increase the number of people on campus who would be able to carry a firearm and take out the shooter.

He said he would recommend that the person conceal the firearm when carrying it.

Four of the university system's eight institutions have police departments, and police chiefs from all of them were enthusiastic about the proposal because it would give them more officers on campus.

"I believe it could be a win-win situation," UNR Police Chief Adam Garcia said.

But some faculty members had concerns about the effects of having professors or others leave for 21 weeks.

"Some people will do it for 21 weeks just to get out of their jobs," said Mike McFarlane, vice president for academic affairs at Great Basin College in Elko.

McFarlane suggested that each institution's president should have the ability to veto whether a faculty member can leave, giving the institutions more control over whether they want to use the deputy program, and Anthony agreed with the idea.

"I think faculty generally are concerned with ... the proliferation of guns on campus," he said.

The police chiefs will get together and come up with a plan to deputize system employee volunteers, including how to pay for the training, and present the plan to regents at their next board meeting in August.

The police chiefs also presented their plans Thursday to deal with an active shooter such as the one at Virginia Tech.

UNLV Police Chief Jose Elique reiterated that in such cases, he would have all of his officers go immediately to the shooter instead of setting up a perimeter, as was done at Virginia Tech.

Other police chiefs said they were undergoing training with local and federal law enforcement to deal with shooters on campus and investigating better ways to notify students and staff about critical incidents.