University students, staff and Denver community members voiced both support and concern at a recent forum as DU and the Department of Campus Safety (DCS) actively pursue the possibility of allowing DCS to carry firearms for law enforcement usage.

Sgt. Stephen Banet of DCS, who was not at the forum due to prior engagements, stated that at the moment, DU administration is currently in the process of working with the KRW Consulting firm to determine, from a non-university point of view, if the measure would work for DU using a report regarding thoughts from students and staff about DCS being armed including interviews from Undergraduate Student Government (USG), Graduate Student Government (GSG), the Faculty Senate, and individual members of the senior administration, which will eventually be reviewed by DU’s Board of Trustees.

In order to talk about concerns over the measure, on Thursday, March 6, a public forum consisting of 15 people was held on campus.

Three members of DU Student Union (DUSU), a student run organization seeking to encourage students to have a voice in university decisions, organized the forum, including senior environmental science and economics major Lily Montesano, freshman undeclared major Courtney Wilhelm, and second year graduate student in law Sara Fitouri. The discussion was ultimately held for students and staff to get involved.

“The ultimate point of the forum was to engage with the student community,” said Montesano, adding, “We feel this is a community that’s largely been ignored in the planning and consideration process, and so we just wanted to provide a space where students could come and learn more about it as well as talk about what our concerns are.”

Montesano further stated that she believes many of the points of discussion raised at the forum impact everyone in the DU community.

“One of the major concerns I heard echoed multiple times is that it’s going to change the power dynamic and the campus climate, and that is something that impacts all of us,” said Montesano, “I think it’s really important that students get involved in this issue.”

Banet said over the past seven years, talk of DCS having firearms has been spurned by many different factors.

“Obviously the active shooter piece plays into it. Going deeper than that, if you look at the type of calls that Campus Safety officers are routinely involved in, that would be suspicious persons, burglary alarms and duress alarms. We’re the first responders for the university,” said Banet. “If you placed a 9-1-1 call for police assistance, it might take 10 minutes to get Denver Police (DPD) here, and we can have officers there in two minutes. It makes good sense to give your first responders the tools they may need to do the job.”

 Banet further stated that every Campus Safety officer would have to undergo numerous hours of training and psychological testing over the course of many weeks before they would actually be able to use firearms. This process would continue annually if successful.

 “We’re not just going to hand guns out tomorrow,” said Banet, “There’d be a lot of training. Even beyond that, officers would go through a psychological evaluation; that would be first. [DPD] would be our firearms instructors, and officers would receive 40 hours of instruction on things like policy, use of force, how the weapon works and demonstrating proficiency with the weapon.”

Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs Craig Woody, who has been in talks with the KRW firm, added to Banet’s statements, stating that the need came from recent on-campus crimes involving suspicious persons, including an incident where an intruder broke into a DU building and was apprehended by DCS.

 “You never know what you’re going to have,” said Woody, “It’s benign until it happens to you, car and bicycle thefts. Some people come onto the campus with improper motives in mind. You never know what’s in store for you, if you’re the officer that has to respond to it.”

Woody added that there is no estimated time when DCS officers would start carrying firearms.

 Freshman political science major Max Parmenter felt firearms for DCS would be an unnecessary measure.

 “I think it’s the job of Campus Safety to deal with [intoxicated] students, bike tickets and traffic violations,” said Parmenter, “We’re right by a police station. I’ve been pulled over on campus by DPD, and they’re here all the time. The only use a Campus Safety officer would have for a gun is to shoot a student. Even with pepper spray, if a student is that out of line that you’re resorting to something that painful to contain them, call the police.”

 In contrast, senior political science and sociology major Austin Igleheart believes that firearms for Campus Safety would allow them to deal with issues more effectively.

 “I’m in favor of it as long as there’s training to go with it,” said Igleheart, “It would give them more power to enforce things. We’ve had robberies near campus, and Campus Safety can’t really respond to that. I don’t really see what they can effectively do to help people in a dangerous situation as its happening. If they had the guns and the training, they’d be able to do that a lot more effectively. Then you have fully trained officers on campus who know how to do emergency management.”

Some DU staff attended the forum as well. Senior Academic Advisor Zi Ekundayo believes arming DCS would prevent students from having a comfortable college experience.

“I think that arming [DCS] would change the campus climate drastically, and not for the better,” said Ekundayo, “I think it would put a chill on student protests and activism. I don’t know about the campus as a whole but young men of color, including international students, would be endangered by this move.”

Woody addressed this concern by stating the university would investigate any incidents described by Ekundayo promptly.

“[Profiling] is something that will not be tolerated at the university,” said Woody, “It’s part of the university’s values, and I think that you can say that those values are espoused by the people who run the department and work in the field.”

Woody also encouraged DU students and staff to voice their thoughts on the issue to the administration. However, the Board of Trustees will have the final decision on the matter.

DUSU will continue to host public events on the subject, and can be contacted at info.dusu@gmail.com for more information. Any questions relating to DCS can be made through their website. Anyone in the DU community wishing to express thoughts on the issue can contact the DU Ombudsman’s office at ombuds@du.edu.