The ISU Faculty Senate met Tuesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union to vote on a proposal to arm ISU Police.

The senate passed the proposal, 38-27, after much debate by faculty and staff members on the issue. This proposal will not decide if ISU Police are armed, but is intended solely as a recommendation for President Gregory Geoffroy to give to the regents, who will decide on the issue.

Director of Public Safety Jerry Stewart and ISU Cmdr. Gene Deisinger were on hand again to defend the case to arm Iowa State’s 31 trained and certified police officers.

“I’d like to thank you for your support and concern on this issue. It’s a sensitive and important one,” Stewart said.

Much of Stewart’s and Deisinger’s presentation centered around the highly touted credentials of ISU Police officers, with the shootings at Virginia Tech being the glue that holds their position on arming together.

On the qualifications of the officers, Stewart said ISU Police has a four-year degree preference in hiring, with the average officer being 38 years old and having 16 years of education, extensive field training, and certification by a nationally accredited agency.

“It’s as or more important to know when to use a firearm as being trained to use it,” Stewart said.

ISU Police officers were last armed in 1969, Stewart said, and due to national contention and the fear of protests by students at the time, they were disarmed.

Both Stewart and Deisinger said the pro-posal to arm the police would not replace any other proposal to explore ways of preventing potentially harmful situations.

After the presentation, there came a battery of questions from faculty and staff on the issue.

Ardith Maney, professor of political science, disagreed deeply with arming of the police on the grounds that both Deisinger and Stewart hung their pro-arming argument on “the safety and security of the officers” and not for the safety and security of the whole campus.

“I’m not convinced by what you presented. It just sounds like a request for guns,” Maney said.

“I don’t believe that arming will prevent another Virginia Tech.”

Stewart said that at no time was the request to arm simply for the security of the officers.

“I view it as a tool, as an instrument to save lives and not take lives,” Stewart said. “It’s for students, staff and officers both.”

John Mayfield, professor of genetics, development and cellular biology, asked if both Stewart and Deisinger thought that arming the police would de-escalate a situation like the riot of Veishea 2004.

“The people who threw rocks at my head didn’t care whether or not I had a weapon,” Stewart said in a light tone