NIU, MCC to get $50,000 to tighten security
Two months to the day after lone gunman killed five Northern Illinois University students before turning the gun on himself, seven local colleges, including NIU, will get $50,000 to help beef up campus security.
Campus slayings like those at NIU and Virginia Tech have brought the security issue to a head.
Threats made inside a bathroom at Malcolm X College briefly closed down the west-side Chicago school Monday.
And last week, St. Xavier University, which has campuses in Chicago and Orland Park, sent its students home indefinitely after threatening graffiti was discovered in a dorm bathroom.
"I can't think of a need that's more important now than to enhance security," said U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, the Egan Republican whose district takes in DeKalb.
Locally, that means NIU and McHenry County College will get some help.
NIU officials will use the $50,000 to buy emergency kits for its major campus buildings and emergency response vehicles, said Ken Zehnder, the school's associate director of external affairs. These kits will carry items that aid a faster trauma response.
Zehnder says that was the one aspect in the school's security plan that local police determined had room for improvement.
"We continue to assess what needs we have and how we can enhance our electronic messaging system," Zehnder said.
The congressman held a second news conference at MCC, where school officials recently purchased a new emergency notification system.
People continue to add their names to the system this week that, once complete, will alert the school's 9,000-member community about crises via text message, e-mail and cell phone.
The school also recently set aside office space for the Crystal Lake Police Department, allowing a visible police presence on campus.
The school began these initiatives two weeks after the NIU shootings, but they'd been in the works for months.
MCC also is holding on-campus training sessions for the Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills police departments so they learn all about the school's "nooks and crannies," college President Walt Packard said.
MCC officials say the $50,000 will help pay for video surveillance cameras that will monitor the school's 12 entrances and six parking lots.
The digital cameras will be outfitted with technology allowing the lens to pivot wherever the emergency happens to be.
For example, if someone activates an emergency phone box, the lens would zero in on the area by the phone, Packard said.
The school has not yet decided whether to hire additional personnel to monitor what those cameras see, Packard said.
Right now, there is no security camera system in existence at MCC, Packard said.
"Timing is always significant when you've got an emergency, so NIU just reminds us of how quickly a tragedy can occur and I assure you … no one expected that kind of event to occur."
Manzullo says each school should receive its share of the $350,000 pie within the next 60 days.
Other northern Illinois schools slated for the federal cash are: Rock Valley College, Rockford College, Highland Community College, Kishwaukee College and Sauk Valley Community College.