Written by: Anaya Parker and Alexis Dewey
Due to the rapid growth of the student body, Southern’s President’s Council and Board of Trustees recently launched a discussion about developing a new safety plan, according to an email from Dennis Negrón, vice president of Student Development.
The Sept. 6 email contained information about the possibility of introducing a greater armed presence on campus and included a survey to gauge students’ and faculty’s interest in heightened security.
Ken Shaw, university president, stated in an email to the Accent that the university is in an exploratory phase. Southern’s Board of Trustees will discuss the topic again in October after further research.
Assistant Chief of Police for the Collegedale Police Department (CPD) Jamie Heath said, “Just Hamilton County alone, when you talk about school threats, the Sheriff’s Office has made 20-30 arrests this semester. Twenty might be a little high [but] it’s still alarming. The issue is growing across the country and in Hamilton County.”
Southern’s open campus layout also creates more vulnerability, especially with the main road running through the university, which complicates efforts to control who comes on and off campus, according to Shawn Haas, associate director of Campus Safety.
“When we’re looking at safety planning in general, we’re always evaluating the campus and making changes or recommendations for change,” said Haas. “[For instance] it’s a little dark in some areas, so they’re upgrading the lighting.”
According to an Accent article published in September of 2023, “Cameras that scan license plates and identify car owners to determine if they have active warrants or are banned from campus have been installed at every entrance at Southern Adventist University to increase safety on campus.”
The Collegedale Police Department (CPD) is a few minutes from the university. Officers are routinely on-site. However, Southern does not hire them.
“Collegedale officers are already frequently on your campus,” said Heath. “Whether we are working with our campus safety partners, answering calls for service, or simply parking our patrol cars and walking around, an officer is either already there or very close by.”
Heath said Collegedale is separated into four areas by the police department: North, East, South and West. Southern is located in the South district of Collegedale, making it one of the routine locations that officers are sent to patrol each day, along with the neighborhoods nearby. Therefore, Southern has armed officers patrolling its grounds each day, throughout the entire day.
“And we are out there for extra jobs and just walking around the campus getting to know the students and the layout and responding to calls for help,” Heath said.
Negrón said the discussion about whether the university needs to expand that armed presence has taken off more recently, “likely because several different constituencies have asked us to explore the topic: students, employees, alumni, trustees.”
Southern already hires police officers for large events, including convocations, graduation and SonRise, according to Haas.
The university has discussed arming Campus Safety officers, but there is no official plan for that at this time, said Negrón. Before being armed, campus safety officers would need significant training and certification.
Students have mixed opinions about increased armed security.
Dalton Baldwin, a junior biology major, said “I don’t think it’s necessary, but you know the contrary is, ‘What if there is a shooting?’”
Zach Bradley, junior history major, said, “It makes me feel more secure knowing that there’s someone who could put a quick stop if there was violence.”
“It makes me feel more secure knowing that there’s someone who could put a quick stop if there was violence.”
Collegedale Academy (CA), across the street from Southern, has a designated School Resource Officer (SRO) on its campus throughout the school year due to an agreement with the CPD, according to Heath. CA pays for the salary of its officer during the school year, and the city pays for the months outside of the academic year.
Negrón requested that the CPD submit a proposal to Southern to provide officers solely dedicated to the campus in order to provide sufficient coverage, Heath stated in an email to the Accent.
“After several discussions were had between the police department and campus safety and Dr. Negrón, the police department chose not to submit a proposal for several reasons,” Heath wrote in the email.
One reason the Collegedale Police Department is not ready to provide Southern with armed officers exclusive to campus is the logistics and costs. According to Heath, more than one officer would be required to provide sufficient coverage for the campus and property belonging to Southern.
“The cost for that kind of staffing alone would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Heath stated in the email. CA only requires one SRO due to the size of its campus, he explained further. With Southern being a larger campus, more officers are required in order to ensure safety.
“The logistics of staffing a privately funded institution with government employees would create logistical issues from the start, mainly involving when these people would be expected to work, for how long, and who would be paying their salaries,” Heath stated. “We can’t use taxpayer money to provide police services to private entities. The only reason we were able to work out an agreement with Collegedale Academy is because CA agreed to pay the officer’s salary during the ten months that the school is in session. We pay for everything else. This is so taxpayer money isn’t being used to benefit a private institution.”
According to Heath, providing an SRO for a private school is a first for Collegedale and possibly the state. He said negotiations involved attorneys and the Tennessee Municipal League to ensure taxpayer dollars were not at risk.
Heath said, whether the CPD is working with Southern’s Campus Safety, answering calls or parking patrol cars and walking around, an officer is either already there or very close by to address any safety issue that may arise.Managing Editor Hayden Kobza contributed to this article.
