(UNDATED) Two separate shooting rampages at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University left nearly 40 people dead and prompted intense discussion on college campuses nationwide on how best to protect students and staff. In the wake of those massacres, several colleges that previously relied on unarmed security staff _ Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., is one _ have taken steps to allow armed guards on campus. Many colleges already do. But at schools affiliated with the historic “peace churches” _ the Brethren, Mennonites and Quakers _ the question of guns on campus has prompted deep levels of soul-searching on how to simultaneously embrace non-violence and keep students and staff safe. Trustees at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., which traces its roots to the Church of the Brethren, voted in April to authorize security to carry guns on the campus that’s home to 1,460 students. It’s the second Brethren-related school to adopt armed guards; five other Brethren schools have not. “Obviously that (Brethren) legacy was in our minds, but we were certainly more cognizant of the needs of students and of parents who wanted to know if their children were going to be safe,” said Juniata spokesman John Wall, a member of a review group that recommended arming school security. The decision to employ armed guards was not an easy or swift one. Discussions were held with students and faculty. Juniata’s Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, one of the oldest such programs in the country, asked college trustees to take more time to study the issue. Andrew Murray, the center’s outgoing director, said he and others felt it was important to offer an alternative philosophy of security that didn’t rely on guns as a first response. “I’m saddened by the decision because I think it’s simply an assimilation to a culture which makes presumptions about guns and security which have no basis whatsoever in fact,” he said. The theological imperative to make peace was one of several factors considered in discussions that occurred on peace-church campuses. Some institutions looked closely at the nature of their relationship to the peace church. Did the church own the school? How did its values inform the culture of the school? Less than 10 percent of the 2,700 students who attend Quaker-related Guilford College are members of the Religious Society of Friends, but “it’s a huge part of our culture and identity,” said Sara Butner, associate director of communications and marketing for the school, in Greensboro, N.C. Butner said the question of armed guards at Guilford didn’t really come up because the school enjoys adequate support from the local police force. “I don’t see us getting to the point where we would have sworn officers,” she said. Other schools also cited reliance on the expertise of local law enforcement. “We have a good working relationship with the local police department,” said Richard Aguirre, director of public relations at Goshen College in Goshen, Ind., a Mennonite-owned campus of 1,000 students. At Earlham College, a Quaker-related school of 1,200 students in Richmond, Ind., a security review occurred even before the Virginia Tech massacre. Campus security director Cathy Anthofer was hired in 2007 to help the school with emergency management. She said Earlham’s likeliest emergency would be caused by weather, not violence. “We’ve defined what an emergency is on our campus,” Anthofer said. “Earlham is not a reactive institution.” Anthofer cited a good relationship between the Earlham campus and local law enforcement. “The chief of police of our local department graduated from Earlham,” said Mark Blackmon, Earlham’s director of media relations. “He understands where we are on this issue.” Though the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University garnered public attention and headlines, evidence shows that campuses have generally become safer. In crime statistics released last February from the U.S. Department of Justice, campus crime rates decreased over 10 years in every category of crime _ including violent crime _ with the one exception of sexual assault. “Campuses are safer than the general population,” said Christopher G. Blake, associate director of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM) Blake said that while he knows of no organization that is tracking a recent move toward armed security, his group has been consulted by a number of colleges and universities in the process of arming their security forces. Campus shootings are not the only factor driving the discussions; rapid response to emergencies is shifting away from SWAT teams, which take time to assemble, to a police response that emphasizies speed. “The new paradigm is to try to engage the shooter right away,” Blake said. (END OPTIONAL TRIM) In their security reviews, a number of colleges also examined preventive strategies and immediate emergency response that could employ non-lethal force, such as Tasers. From that perspective, a school’s moral and legal responsibility to ensure safety does not necessarily require guns. “There may be other nonviolent alternatives officers could use,” said Donald B. Kraybill, senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College, a Brethren-related school in Lancaster County, Pa. “I would hope that colleges in the peace church tradition have the brainpower to come up with creative nonviolent alternatives.”

KRE/CM END NELSON

Photos from Juniata College, and of a campus memorial service at Northern Illinois University, are available via religionnews.com.