Local College Campus Safety Departments Work Together

April 4, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Local college and university campus safety and police departments are
making greater efforts to work together thanks to a recent initiative from
Calvin College.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/campus-safety.htm

A new group plans to increase communication among area college and university
campus safety and police departments.

Calvin director of campus safety Bill Corner convened the gathering for the
first time in mid-March and says he hopes the meeting was the start of
something permanent. It makes sense, he says, for local colleges and
universities to do what local police departments already are doing.

"There's a group of leaders from every police department in Kent County that
meets once a month," he says, "and I attend most of those meetings. They're
great opportunities to network, to gather information and to share information.
 After a while I thought 'Why aren't we doing this on a local college level?'"

So on March 15 campus safety and police department personnel from eight area
institutions -- Calvin, Aquinas, Grand Rapids Community, Hope and Kuyper
colleges as well as Cornerstone, Davenport and Grand Valley State universities
-- came together to form the Grand Rapids Area Higher Education Campus Safety
Department Association.

They met from 11 am to 2 pm that day to discuss a variety of issues,
everything from larcenies in college fieldhouses to crime patterns on campuses
to how campus safety and on-campus police departments can play an educational
role in their communities.

Corner says coordination among area college and university campus safety and
police departments can be as important as coordination among local law
enforcement branches.

Corner hopes going forward to create a monthly email newsletter for the Grand
Rapids Area Higher Education Campus Safety Department Association and also to
see the group meet quarterly for networking, information sharing and perhaps
some seminars and speakers.

Calvin's campus safety department, which includes eight full-time employees
and 45-50 students (who work as officers, dispatch personnel and escort
drivers), has been under Corner's leadership since the summer of 2005 when the
1989 Calvin graduate returned to his alma mater to succeed Jerry Steele.

It was a stint as a student worker in the campus safety department at Calvin
that launched Corner on his eventual career path, one that includes 14 years
with the Grand Rapids Police Department.

Contact Bill Corner at 616-526-6751

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Received on Wed Apr 4 10:45:02 2007