Present: Barbara Burrell, Virginia Cassidy, Sally Conklin, Sharon Howard, Glenda Jones, Kathy Lockard, Sue Ouellette, Carol Patch, Lise Schlosser, Julia Sober, Josephine Umoren, Randi Wolfe.
Absent: Stacy Allie, Karen Baker, Joanne Dempsey, Deborah Haliczer, Lisa King, Amy Levin, Julie Robertson.
Guest: Chief Donald Grady of the University Police Department
The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m. by Chair Barbara Burrell in Lowden Hall 304. Kathy Lockard made a motion to approve the minutes from the January 14, 2004 meeting with corrections, and Sue Ouellette seconded the motion. The minutes were unanimously approved.
Chief Grady addressed the commission. He said that there has been a metamorphosis in the department in the last two and a half years. There used to be concerns about community involvement, racial profiling, police presence and education of the force. While much of this was a public relations issue, there was room for improvement. So he changed the philosophy of the department. Policing does not equal law enforcement. Law Enforcement is only one part of policing. Policing is a community issue. We are all a community and the police exist to support NIU’s community of faculty, staff, and students.
ACCORDING TO CHIEF GRADY, The force is highly educated. Eighty percent of the officers have bachelors degrees, 10% have associate degrees. Some have masters and one has a Ph.D. It is one of the best-educated departments around. It is also a highly diverse force. All of the officers are trained as EMTs on the basic level in order to insure that, in responding to a medical emergency, there is the highest possible chance of survival. The chief discussed the fact that the threat of terrorism still exists and that terrorists are looking for soft targets, which would include places, like college campuses. The department has made every effort to be prepared in case of any sort of incident. Due to the EMT training, there are 46 additional medical “first responders” available to assist in a mass casualty situation. There are 8 sites around campus, which have emergency medical kits. In the past two and a half years, the officers on the force have received more than 65,000 hours of additional education. We have certified hazardous materials technicians on our force, which is highly unusual since it takes 40 hours of training to become a HazMat expert. We have explosive experts on the force as well. We have a critical Incident Response team. We also have a bomb sniffing dog and a search and rescue dog. There is a
The Chief SAID HE likes to measure the success of the department by the absence of crime as opposed to measuring of the number of tickets written or arrests made. This success can be most clearly seen in the fact that from the fall semester of 2001 to the fall semester of 2002 there was a reduction of 59.32% in crime. Students are also much more satisfied with the department. They are looking for voluntary compliance.
Late night ride service, which used to be a student run program, is now housed in the Police Department. They now receive up to 250 calls per night on weekends as opposed to six or seven when it was housed outside of the department. Due to the increase in demand, the department has hired two new security guards (who drive the vans), two new telecommunicators, and added two more vehicles. This SERVICE has resulted in a reduction in accidents related to alcohol. This service is available both on and off campus.
The chief then addressed the issue of call boxes. He says that there are not many calls from the call boxes and that they are an antiquated technology. They do not offer someone help unless they are in the vicinity of a call box when trouble happens. However, there have been 10 new call boxes added around campus. He related that there are other systems available out there, one of which would be a Global Positioning System (GPS), but this is not an available system right now. What is available is a system, which uses radio signals and triangulation. This system utilizes a unit assigned to each individual and linked to a central database, which contains profiles and photographs of each user. Activation of the location and tracking feature of the system would only be available if the user initiates it. The police department would not be able to spy on user locations. This type of system is already in place on campuses in
Affirmative Action Diversity Resources Report (AADR): Sharon Howard related that the AADR committee has representatives from each commission and the representative from PCSW has usually been the chair, but does not have to be and it often an issue. This is an important committee. They are anticipating a collaborative workshop that will highlight success and identify shared concerns. Randi Wolfe said that she might be interested in serving.
Campus Climate and Quality of Life: Kathy Lockard reported that they had not heard from Karen Baker as to whether we might be able to require the Voices for Change workshops based on the Victim Economic Security Safety Act requirements.
Personal and Professional Development: Barbara Burrell reported that Josephine Umoren had let her know that speakers are in place for the spring networking luncheon and that the luncheon will be scheduled for some Friday in March. More information will follow.
Sharon Howard also announced and passed out a flyer on the International Women’s Day luncheon that will be Wednesday, March 3rd. The speaker is Beth Finke, author and NPR commentator who will be speaking on a blind writers worldview.
Research: Barbara Burrell reported that Deborah Haliczer is taking the lead with the Family Medical Leave Act study that was discussed at the last meeting. They are planning a survey of departmental chairs regarding faculty use of the FMLA use and Deborah’s intern, Kim Townsend, is going to look through records to determine who has taken advantage of this and when, etc.
Barbara Burrell said that the committee is interested in establishing an annual Status of Women at NIU report. She passed out a list of possible information to be included in the report. The committee will be meeting with Dan House regarding what kind of information is already available.
Awards committee: Sharon Howard reported that the Outstanding Women Student Awards deadline is approaching for the student information submissions. They are looking for a volunteer from the commission to help go through the submissions. It is a lot of time to read the submissions. Then there will be a meeting (probably the last Friday in March) to make the decisions. She explained that the sub-committee makes the selection for the Wilma Strickland Award and that they will be meeting after that deadline as well to make that decision. The committee this year is also going to begin looking at other possibilities for recognition from this commission. She anticipates two meeting during this semester.
The Salary Equity Task Force has not met and there was no report.
Barbara reported that Sherri Kallenbach and Deb Haliczer are discussing a potential half- day fall workshop dealing with women’s leadership. They would like to come to the meeting next month to present their ideas and seek support from the commission.
The ombudsman has requested feedback from the commission. Virginia Cassidy suggested that a written explanation about major concerns and/or trends that could avoid the disclosure that he was concerned about and yet still be helpful to the commission. It was also suggested that some definitions could be helpful.
Lise Schlosser passed out the Women’s History Month calendar from the Women’s Studies Program. Sharon Howard passed out the employee wellness flyer for spring.
Virginia Cassidy announced that the Accreditation site team would be here February 23-25. Every department will get a copy of the self-study, which is also available on the website. There will be open meetings during the site-team’s visit for faculty, staff, and students.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Kathy Lockard and seconded by Carol Patch. The motion was approved unanimously. Barbara Burrell adjourned the meeting at 2:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lise Schlosser