[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10005]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF CENTER TO ADVANCE, MONITOR, AND PRESERVE UNIVERSITY 
                      SECURITY SAFETY ACT OF 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 23, 2011

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to introduce the 
Center to Advance, Monitor and Preserve University Security 
(''CAMPUS'') Safety Act of 2011. This legislation passed the House in 
both the 110th and 111th Congresses and I hope to get it signed into 
law in the 112th Congress. The purpose of the legislation is to enable 
our institutions of higher education to more easily obtain the best 
information available on how to keep our campuses safe and how to 
respond in the event of a campus emergency. The bill creates a National 
Center for Campus Public Safety (``Center''), which will be 
administered through the Department of Justice. The Center is designed 
to train campus public safety agencies in state of the art practices to 
assure campus safety, encourage research to strengthen college safety 
and security, and serve as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of 
relevant campus public safety information. The Director of the Center 
will have authority to award grants to institutions of higher learning 
to help them meet their enhanced public safety goals.
  Over the past few years we have seen numerous tragedies occur at 
colleges and universities, including the disastrous events that 
occurred at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. 
Unfortunately, because these events were the first of their kind for 
the nation, our schools had not developed knowledge on how best to 
prevent such tragedies or on how to respond in their aftermath. While 
there is growing awareness that such threats are possible anywhere, 
many schools still have not developed safety protocols that would 
prepare them to maximize the prospects of preventing such tragedies or 
to effectively respond to them should they occur despite sound 
prevention efforts. The recent shooting at Old Dominion University is 
an unfortunate reminder of the need for this legislation.
  Our nation's colleges and universities play a large role in the 
development of our next generation of leaders and we should assist them 
in their efforts to keep our campuses and our students safe. The Clery 
Act already requires schools to have safety plans in order to 
participate in the Title IV deferral student aid programs, however, 
currently there is no one place for schools to obtain reliable and 
useful information. It makes little sense to require the thousands of 
institutions of higher education to individually go through the cost 
and effort to develop comprehensive plans. Instead, they ought to be 
able to obtain guidance and assistance, including best practices, from 
a ``one stop shop'' like the Center.
  The CAMPUS Safety Act will help institutions of higher learning 
understand how to prevent such tragedies from occurring, and how to 
respond immediately and effectively in case they do.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor and support this important 
legislation to ensure that our institutions of higher education have 
access to the information necessary to keep their schools safe.

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