Reporting Words: Assignment 2

Powell, Austin

Universities and colleges are being forced to cut their budget to cope with the ripple effect the economic crisis has created.  However, student safety on and off campus is still a major concern for these universities despite budget constraints.

University state funding in the state of Texas has shrunk from 47 to 13 percent.  University of Texas Police Department is one of the university police departments that must adjust its resources in the wake of reduced state from the state legislature.

In a press conference for UT journalism students held by UTPD Tuesday, Sept. 18, officers discussed how UTPD is reacting to a smaller budget from the Tower.

UTPD requests a certain amount of money each year from the university and then those funds are allocated to the department.

“The university has to do with what its got.  There’s no magic pot to take money from,” UTPD Police Chief Robert Dahlstrom said.

UTPD’s budget is 90 percent employee salary with the rest going toward operating costs, Dahlstrom added.

UTPD is staffed with 66 officers.  Five to eight of those officers are on campus on a rotating basis.  23 of the officers on staff have less than 2 years of experience.

Newly hired officers with UTPD must shadow another officer in the department for two years before he or she is allowed to go out into the field alone.  UTPD’s police force was put to the test Sept. 14 when the university was alerted of a possible bomb threat.

North Dakota State University also received a bomb threat the same day.

While UTPD later determined the call to be a hoax, the event called into question UTPD’s emergency-alert response.  At 8:35 a.m., a call came in claiming bombs would go off in all university building 90 minutes after the phone call.

But buildings were not cleared out until 10 minutes before the 90-minute mark of detonation.  Students were also notified via text message and social media to evacuate the campus.

“The university obviously didn’t take the incident seriously.  They would have set the alarm off at 8:30 a.m.,” said Emma Kettle, an exchange student from Australia.

However UTPD defended their response time in dealing with the threat and the protocol they took in informing students and faculty.

“We have had 14 bomb threats since 2006, so we look at each one individually and determine their credibility,” Dahlstrom said in relation to UTPD’s delayed evacuation response.

No suspect has been named in connections with bomb threat because the investigation of the suspect’s identity is still underway.

“Your (the students) safety is our concern.  We try to be as transparent as possible,” UTPD Assistant Chief Terry McMahan said.