Legislation passed in Albany may soon resolve the debate over whether Syracuse University Public Safety should be allowed to carry guns.

At the Student Association meeting on Monday, Vice President Rigaud Noel informed the assembly of the legislation that would give peace officer status to SU’s Public Safety officers. In addition to allowing its members to carry firearms, peace officer status would permit Public Safety to travel off campus, make traffic stops and detain suspects, said Noel, a senior political science major.

The bill, which was drafted specifically for SU, passed the New York State Assembly and Senate this summer, but has not yet come before Governor George E. Pataki. The governor has until Dec. 30 to sign the bill into law, Noel said.

In order to implement the measure at SU, the University Senate must provide its budget and Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw and the Board of Trustees must give their approval. Lastly, it will be up to the University Senate to decide whether or not to arm Public Safety officers.

Noel said that SA, the Chancellor’s Committee on Campus Security and other organizations will sponsor a series of open forums in which students will be able to voice their opinions before any action is taken to implement the status change.

In other SA news:

n SA brainstormed ways to increase its recognition on campus and to more effectively communicate with students. The assembly debated the revival of open forums for individual schools and colleges, the restructuring of the poorly attended university-wide forum and the use of suggestion boxes to gather student feedback.

Assembly members debated why the SA has a low profile in the first place. Greg Jones, a junior political science major, suggested that students may not be aware of the SA because it does little as an organization. If the SA took a more active role on campus, it might generate interest, he said.

‘If we can actually find some way to go out there and do stuff, then we can get people’s attention,’ Jones said.

Dominick Chillemi, a senior management and policy studies major, said the SA’s defensive reaction to criticism may be hampering the organization’s growth. He praised the ongoing restructuring project, the committee of which includes investigating student governments at other colleges and universities and gathering feedback from students. He said that efforts such as a survey to gather student’s opinions on SU’s libraries are a good start.

‘We can’t respond defensively; we’ve got to respond proactively,’ he said.

Published on September 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm