Administrators defended University President Jehuda Reinharz's recent decision to arm the campus public safety officers next year at last Thursday's faculty meeting, and a group of students is mobilizing to confront the decision this week.Chief Operating Officer Peter French, who chaired the firearms advisory committee that submitted a recommendation to Reinharz in favor of arming the officers, discussed the circumstances of the decision and responded to several questions from faculty members. The committee was formed in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute last April.

Ben Serby '08, who formed a Facebook group called "Students for a Gunfree Brandeis" to protest the decision, said he hopes to gather around 30 students to accompany him at Reinharz's office hours this Thursday afternoon to present a petition signed by several hundred students and dozens of faculty and staff who oppose either the decision-making process or the decision to arm in general.

Before officers are armed, they must pass physical and medical examinations and a psychological test, French said. After passing the tests, sergeants will be armed by early May and officers by the end of Spring 2008.

"If any of our police are deemed inappropriate to carry a gun, they will not carry a gun," Reinharz said.

All 20 officers will undergo training by the Waltham police at their training academy, French said, even though eight are already licensed to carry firearms.

"There's urgency attached to Public Safety, and we proceeded as quickly as we could," French said. "The community should be prepared for the worst even if it has not happened here."

At the faculty meeting, Prof. Sabine Von Mering (GRALL) asked French how the committee knows that an armed police force can respond to an emergency more effectively and whether they conducted research on the subject.

French answered that the committee consulted Waltham and Brandeis police officers and solicited outside advice. Von Mering repeated her question, seeking a more complete answer.

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan spoke about the decision.

"Individuals have come to campus with knives and guns," he said. Although the officers haven't needed guns to defend the community in the past, Callahan said it's important for the University to be proactive.

"We will be developing protocols, as have other colleges and universities such as Bentley and Tufts, regulating the use of that force," French said.

Currently, if the Department of Public Safety receives a call that involves the threat of a deadly weapon, officers call the Waltham Police Department for backup and have to wait up to around 10 minutes for police to arrive, French said.

Prof. Stephen Burg (POL), also responding to Von Mering, said a properly trained armed police force creates an image to outsiders that Brandeis is well protected and prepared.

"The reality is we are perceived as a Jewish institution," he said. "We have always been perceived as a potential target."

Reinharz spoke briefly about how he changed his mind on the arming issue. In 1995, after being presented with the same recommendation, Reinharz said he didn't follow it because he didn't believe arming was warranted at that time.

Reinharz and French, however, both said the world has changed since then, and Brandeis must keep up. Aside from the Virginia Tech incident, a shooting took place last Friday at Delaware State University.

"We have a very aggressive policy ... in [the Department of] Student Life so if we see any problems among students, we intervene very quickly," Reinharz said.

Eddy discussed a training program this semester that will teach faculty how to identify troubling signs in students. Robert Berlin, director of the Psychological Counseling Center, will lead the program.

Serby said he opposes the way in which the administration decided to arm the officers as well as the decision itself, explaining in a phone interview that the debate didn't include enough students, faculty or staff. The student-petition he will present to Reinharz this Thursday states that "The advisory committee did not conduct an objective and thorough study and did not fully represent the Brandeis community."

"Submitting the petition is a step that we'd like to take because it mobilizes people on this issue in a very direct and real way," Serby said.

Serby added that he and around seven to 10 students who meet weekly to discuss the issue are considering submitting a resolution to the Student Union expressing the student body's disapproval with the decision.

"I'm not expecting that [Reinharz] will really listen to us.but I do think it's important that we not stand idly by," he said. The petitions are mostly symbolic in nature, he said.