The Iowa Board of Regents passed a new comprehensive security plan that will allow campus police officers at Iowa’s three regent universities to be armed.

ISU Police Cmdr. Gene Deisinger said the new policy covered a lot of the issues that were central to maintaining security on campus.

“The training and arming of university police officers was one subsection of the overall policy that was submitted by the board,” Deisinger said.

The Board of Regents started the process with a review of existing safety and security measures, then solicited opinions on what else needed to be done to reform campus safety measures, Deisinger said.

“Many states have started this review process – what the regents have done is codified these new policies,” Deisinger said.

There are several major safety and security areas covered in the new policy, including the implementation of an emergency communication program.

“These are going to be multi-modality systems through voice mail, text message and e-mail to provide instructions on how to respond,” Deisinger said.

According to the security policy, each university will have to instate an “early identification” program that will help to identify people who pose a threat to themselves or others. Deisinger said Iowa State has had such a program in place since 1994.

The security policy also outlines the requirements to have an open campus and for providing security to people on campus. There will also be strategies developed to protect “critical infrastructures and key assets on campuses.”

According to the policy, Iowa State would arm 31 officers, the University of Iowa would arm 32 and Northern Iowa would arm 18.

Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, said “some type of 9 mm pistol is generally used by law enforcement agencies.”

The policy implemented a uniform code for all three regent universities, Madden said. He said this means each university has to use the same type of weapon.

Each campus police force has to go through training and re-certification according to the security policy, Madden said.

After that, Jerry Stewart, director of the department of public safety at Iowa State, will report to Madden, who will make a recommendation to President Gregory Geoffroy to arm the campus police officers. Geoffroy will then make a decision on when to arm the police, Madden said. He said the re-certification training and recommendation should be made to Geoffroy by mid-November.

Each school’s board of directors would have to have its gun type approved by Gene Myers, public safety commissioner of Iowa.

Dave Zarifis, director of public safety at the University of Northern Iowa, said his campus community has had open forums with the president that covered many of the issues that come with arming campus police.

“I think that some view it as a philosophical issue – that weapons should not be on campus,” Zarifis said. “They should look at it from the view that officers are going to face dangerous situations in which they need to be armed.”

Brian Phillips, senior in political science and president of Government of the Student Body, said the decision is what students wanted.

“Students were clearly in support of arming the officers, the PA systems, crisis management, interventions and things of that nature,” he said.

He said that in August, student leaders at all three of Iowa’s regent universities conducted surveys for the Board of Regents to see how students would react to the arming of campus police.

“At all three, there was about 60 percent that agreed or strongly said that the police should carry arms; all three expressed overwhelming support,” Phillips said.

Charles Wakefield, GSB senator and senior in computer engineering, said they debated the issue heavily in the student senate.

“My feelings on it are that I feel very safe on the Iowa State campus right now, and my question was ‘will I feel safer or less safe with the campus police armed?'” Wakefield said. “I feel like I would be surrounded by armed guards.”

Chuck Green, director of public safety at the University of Iowa, was unavailable for comment.