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Portland State students demonstrated before and during a vote by the university's new board of trustees to tentatively established an armed campus police force. Students said they were not listened to during debate on the issue and that armed campus police would make them feel less safe, not more.

(Betsy Hammond / The Oregonian)

Over the strong objections of many students and most of the tenure-track faculty, Portland State University's new board of trustees voted Thursday to create an armed campus police force.

But the university can't deploy a single armed officer unless the board votes yes again in June.

Before that, a committee including students, faculty and staff must write a plan setting forth special training requirements, use of force policies and other conditions for the new police force that match the expectations of people at Portland State.

Much of the rationale for the decision to move toward armed campus police was the desire of many Portland State administrators who oversee student health and safety to have campus-based officers steeped in PSU culture, not officers from the Portland Police Bureau, respond to the biggest safety threats on campus.

Portland police officers do not understand campus culture and have shown slow or insensitive responses to PSU emergencies, Michelle Toppe, dean of student life, and others said.

Trustee Tom Imeson, a business executive who chaired the special committee of the board that wrote the detailed resolution delaying arming of campus officers pending six months of planning, explained his view of how armed PSU officers might operate. He said they would be trained in cultural competency and might wear body cameras.

Trustee Gale Castillo, president of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber, also helped craft that resolution and shared her vision of the force she voted to create.

"We want them to show up not just during bad times, but be engaged in positive activities with the students, so that the students know the officers by name and would feel comfortable approaching them at any time." She said she expects they would not always dress in full gear during their shift so they would "be seen as people not war-like soliders."

The specter of Ferguson and Eric Garner's death hung heavy over much of the recent campus debate, Castillo and others said. In overwhelmingly white Portland, 40 percent of PSU freshmen are students of color and there is genuine fear of police violence, several trustees noted.

Two trustees voted against the plan, English professor Maude Hines, a past president of the Faculty Senate, and Swati Adarkar, president of a local advocacy group for young children. Students in the audience noted both are women of color.

They and two other board members, graduate student Pamela Campos-Palma and travel agency executive Sho Dozono, made an unsuccessful effort to get the board to approve a sworn police force that could make arrests and carry non-lethal weapons -- but to defer until June a decision whether those officers could carry firearms.

Hines said PSU should try to learn from other large universities that have added armed officers whether and how that has improved campus safety before committing to giving its sworn officers guns.

But President Wim Weiwel spoke strongly against delaying that decision until June. He called Hines' attempt to do that "a symbolic concession to those who have expressed concerns" that he said would "continue the acrimony and antagonism" on campus over the issue "without likely changing any actual outcome."

Arming police is an emotional issue on campus and one many faculty and students deeply oppose. Students testified that they fear armed officers and want to see other non-violent methods to increase campus safety.

Melinda Joy, a leader in anti-rape efforts on campus, said victims of sexual assault will not want to report those crimes to armed officers and accused PSU leaders of trying to discourage reporting of sex crimes.

Portland State currently has 18 people in its campus public safety department, including 10 officers, a detective, three sergents, a lieutenant and the chief, Phil Zerzan. Two of the officers and one of the sergents have gone through the training needed to be an armed, sworn officer and could readily update that, Zerzan said.

Even if the board votes yes on armed campus officers next summer, it would likely be 2016 or later before PSU would have two armed officers on campus at all times, said Kevin Reynolds, vice president for finance and administration. Adding 10 officers, which is the number needed to post two officers around the clock seven days a week, would cost PSU about $1.2 million a year, he said.

Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon already have armed campus police officers.

-- Betsy Hammond