2007 National Campus Security Summit at the University of Central Oklahoma

FEMA Administrator to Address Campus Leaders
at National Campus Security Summit, May 30

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2007
Contact: Charlie Johnson, UCO News Bureau Director, (405) 974-2315

(Oklahoma City, Okla.) – David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will be the featured speaker at the 2007 National Campus Security Summit, to be held May 30 on the University of Central Oklahoma campus.

“It is important that we work collectively at all levels of government with the academic community to plan ways to prevent, protect, deter, prepare, respond and recover from all of the hazards we face as a nation,” said Paulison.

“The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA have developed programs, training aids and support to assist our educational facilities take steps to address this critical need and to open the doors to communication across all levels of government.”

Paulison has more than 35 years of emergency management experience. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2007, Paulison clearly understands the roles of first responders in a crisis, as he began his career as a firefighter and paramedic.

“The incident at Virginia Tech shook the foundations of security across every community,” said Summit co-host and UCO President Roger Webb. “Paulison brings to the Summit the first-hand experience of what responders face on the scene of an unfolding tragedy.”

The summit is the first of its kind in the U.S. since the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April and is bringing together university leadership, campus security personnel and communications departments to reexamine their critical response plans.

“Having FEMA Administrator Paulison at the Summit will help all of us focus on the importance of preparedness. Preparedness can help any institution ward off problems, respond well when incidents are in progress and speed the return to
normality after an event,” said Donald Hamilton, executive director of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) and Summit co-host.

Noted Summit speakers include:

• NBC Crime Analyst and former FBI profiler, Clint Van Zandt, addressing the lessons learned from the Virginia Tech tragedy and offering suggestions on identifying “at risk students;”

• C. Suzanne Mencer, former executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety who led the examination of the Columbine High School shooting case.

Other critical topics include:
• The Psychology of Rage;
• Privacy and the Law;
• Crisis Communications;
• Law Enforcement and Tactical Issues.

The one-day Summit is being hosted by UCO, MIPT, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

Deadline for registration is May 23.

For more information, go to the 2007 National Campus Security website at http://campussecuritysummit.ucok.edu

MIPT is a non-profit, nationally recognized think-tank creating state-of-the-art knowledge bases. You can access the world’s largest single source of information on terrorism at www.MIPT.org

The University of Central Oklahoma is a public, four-year, master’s level university. Founded in 1890, UCO is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of Oklahoma.

UCO also is home to the nationally known UCO Forensic Science Institute, headed by Dr. Dwight Adams, former director of the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

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