The University’s top public safety officer will speak next week in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee in a hearing on campus safety.
David Rainer, director of environmental health and public safety, received an invitation to appear in front of the committee Wednesday. Although the hearing will occur a week after the shootings at Virginia Tech, Matt Peterson, director of federal research affairs at N.C. State, said it is not a reaction to Monday’s tragedy.
But the deaths of 32 people at the hands of Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui will no doubt hang over Tuesday’s meeting.
Although Rainer said he is still working on his material for the hearing, he plans to use part of his time to speak about the process of obtaining funding from the Department of Homeland Security.
“It’s a good opportunity to change the system so campuses can ask for money,” Rainer said. “Most money goes straight to federal and state agencies.”
Rainer said the University does get money for campus safety from Homeland Security through Wake County, and he praised the county’s support.
But the problem, he said, is that universities are unable to go directly to Homeland Security to request funding.
“We shouldn’t have to go through a third party,” Rainer said.
One improvement to campus safety included an upgrade to an 800 MHz radio system. Administered at the county level, Rainer said the system allows emergency personnel to talk to any of their counterparts from across the county seamlessly.
“They decide who talks first,” he said. “In an emergency, when everybody is pushing the button at the same time, you could have chaos.”
But with a $265,000 price tag, Rainer said necessary technology like this is expensive.
“That was money spent out of pocket,” he said. “Many cities get their money from the federal government. The campuses need help.”
According to Peterson, Rainer will appear in large part because of U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a member of the committee from North Carolina.
Rainer said he wasn’t given much direction in terms of what to talk about during the hearing, entitled “Protecting our Schools: Federal Efforts to Strengthen Community Preparedness and Response.”
“It’s pretty obtuse,” Rainer said. “They just tell you the title of the hearing.”
Rainer said he must submit material for his presentation to the committee by 5 p.m. Friday, which doesn’t leave him much time.
“Let’s just say the compressed time schedule has created challenges that will intrude on my personal time,” Rainer said with a laugh.
