Norwich — As a bill that would allow community colleges to have armed security guards on campus works its way through the General Assembly, the Governance Council at Three Rivers Community College is polling students, staff and faculty on whether they would feel safer with armed guards on campus. 

The survey, which started last week, is ongoing with no set deadline date, said Kathryn Gaffney, director of marketing and public relations at the college.  

But the issue has been on the minds of students since at least Oct. 1, when a student gunman killed nine people in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., then killed himself after being shot by police.

A few weeks later, leaders of the Three Rivers Student Government Board polled its 40 members during a meeting, asking for a show of hands on whether they would want armed security guards at the New London Turnpike campus in Norwich.

“Students overwhelmingly voted in favor,” said Student Government Executive Board President Alycia Ziegler of Ledyard. “Only a few hands went up against it.”

Ziegler, 31, didn't vote in the poll, but board member Danielle Spada, 20, a nursing student from East Lyme, said she raised her hand for armed security at Three Rivers.

Spada said she feels the college needs the extra protection that the current unarmed guards could not provide.

“They try, but they don't do as well as they should,” Spada said. “I don't think it's enough.”

Student Government Executive Board Vice President Faith Allaire, 32, a general studies and women's studies major from Gales Ferry, said she raised several concerns about having armed security guards, including training, cost and whether it would change the character of the college as a “welcoming campus.”

The idea of allowing the state's community colleges to have armed security arose after Mark Ojakian, appointed last August as president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, toured campuses last fall to ask students, faculty and staff for their concerns.

Campus safety repeatedly was raised as a topic of discussion, said Maribel La Luz, spokesman for the state college system.

State Sen. Steve Cassano, D-Manchester, sponsored a bill titled An Act Concerning Special Police Forces on College Campuses.

The General Assembly's Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee held a public hearing Feb. 18 on the bill, and voted 13-3 on March 3 in favor of sending it to the House and Senate floors.

The bill would allow state colleges that don't have armed security to seek approval from the state Board of Regents of a plan to hire armed security guards.

Each college would have to present its own plan, and all security personnel would be required to have Police Officer Standards and Training certificates, La Luz said.

Currently, all four state universities — Eastern, Southern, Central and Western — have armed security, along with the University of Connecticut.

Naugatuck Valley Community College is the only community college with armed security.

Ojakian testified in favor of the proposal at the Feb. 18 legislative hearing on the bill. He also issued a separate statement in a news release on the issue of campus security.

“In my visits to our schools and in conversations with our students, faculty, and administrators, a consistent theme has been the desire to feel safe on our campuses,” Ojakian said in the statement. “Sadly, the tragic events that have occurred on college campuses over the last year and a half have brought more attention to safety concerns and have accelerated our response. Not every one of our community colleges wants special police forces, and each campus will have to make that decision for itself. This legislation permits those campuses that want special police forces to have them, but does not mandate it for those that don't.”

Three Rivers currently contracts with Allied Barton for campus security. At any given time, four security guards are on duty at main entrances and patrol the buildings, grounds and expansive parking lots, Gaffney said.

Three Rivers has a total enrollment of 3,918 students, with 51 students taking classes at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton.

In the parking lot outside the college Thursday, several students agreed that Three Rivers could use armed security guards for better protection.

Most students were aware of the new survey being circulated and some already have filled it out. They also said the survey has prompted discussions among friends and classmates. Some filled it out together.

“Right now, I feel the school is not as safe as it could be,” said Shelyese Perry, 27, a marketing student from Norwich. “Right now, anybody can walk on campus.”

Perry does have some concerns about possible armed security, including whether there would need to be a tuition increase to pay for it, and whether it would change the culture of the school.

“You have to consider that there would be armed guards at our school,” she said.

Glenn Wierbicki, 23, a general studies major from Niantic, said he works for a security firm elsewhere in the region. He said it's time for Three Rivers to switch to armed security guards.

“With everything going on around this country with school shootings, there should be armed guards, well trained,” Wierbicki said. “In my opinion, it's not that hard for anyone to come on campus and start shooting up the place.”

His friends, Yara Deroux, an engineering and science major from Willimantic, and Brittnee Winski, another engineering and science major from Norwich, both agreed that armed guards would improve security at Three Rivers, as long as the officers are properly trained both in the use of weapons and the responsibility that goes with them.

“To have a pistol, that's a power, so they should be well trained,” Deroux said.

c.bessette@theday.com

Please select the category that best describes you.

· Student

· Faculty/staff

2. Currently, Three Rivers Community College does not have armed security staff. Please select the statement that best represents your view.

· I would feel less safe with armed security staff at TRCC.

· I would feel more safe with armed security staff at TRCC.

· Armed security staff would have no effect on my feeling of safety at TRCC.