CEDAR FALLS - At a special meeting on Friday, the University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly against arming campus police.

The senate debated the issue for nearly an hour late in the afternoon as the campus emptied for the long holiday weekend. Ultimately, it decided the university would be safer if campus police did not carry guns. The final vote was 11 in favor of a motion to oppose arming campus police, with three voting against and one abstention.

The senate's recommendation will be forwarded to UNI President Benjamin Allen, who is expected to give his recommendation to the Iowa Board of Regents at its next meeting in Council Bluffs on Sept. 18-19. Final recommendations are due to the state by Oct. 15.

Several professors spoke against arming police, citing a low violent crime rate on campus, the Cedar Falls Police Department's ability to quickly respond to the campus and concerns over the impact of putting more guns on campus.

"This proposal is a knee jerk reaction to what happened at Virginia Tech," said religion and philosophy professor Jerry Soneson, referring to a recommendation by UNI's director of public safety to arm campus police. "We ought to be a model in how to react to social crises in a thoughtful manner."

Social work professor Katherine van Wormer said UNI regularly rates as one of the safest campuses in the country, and murders at colleges nationwide are extremely rare. She added that national statistics show African Americans are more likely to be shot by police than a white suspect.

"It explains why people from the black community are very concerned about this," she said.

Jerry Smith, a professor at the business school, spoke forcefully in favor of arming campus police.

"To me, we're more likely to have lives lost as a result of campus police not being armed, than we are if they are," he said.

He went on to say that the public would blame leaders of the university if an attack were to occur on campus, and police were unable to stop it because they weren't armed.

"If an attack were to happen on the UNI campus, I don't think there would be a public outcry if we had armed police. However, if people are killed as a result of not having our police armed, not only would there be a public outcry, I suspect President Allen would have to resign," he said.

Political science professor Michael Licari didn't cast a vote as chairman of the Faculty Senate, but spoke in favor giving guns to campus police because they do the same work as municipal officers.

"We ask them to do the same police work as any officer in Iowa without the same tools," he said.

After the campus shootings at Virginia Tech University in April, the state's three universities were asked to take a serious look at their public safety processes and protocols.

UNI is the only school among its peer institutions that has certified officers who are not armed. Iowa and Iowa State officers are also the only ones in their respective conferences who do not carry guns.

UNI Department of Public Safety Director Dave Zarifis has recommended that his officers be armed. Zarifis was not present at Friday's meeting.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.