Reimagining Campus Safety Committee to hold town hall meetings
The first University of Iowa town hall aiming to combat systematic harm from law enforcement will take place today on Zoom from 3-5 p.m.
The Old Capital building is seen on Nov. 19, 2019.
February 2, 2021
The First Reimagining Campus Safety Action Committee town hall meeting will be held today from 3-5 p.m. and is open to all members of The University of Iowa community with a HawkID.
The town halls are part of the three-phase timeline guiding the committee’s work with the goal of creating a more inclusive and safe environment for members of groups that have been disproportionately harmed by law enforcement.
The committee was announced in June of 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spurred weeks of Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality in Iowa City and at the UI.
According to the Division of Student Life website, phase 1, “defining the vision” consists of gathering information on different perspectives on campus safety and inclusion.
The committee will work on defining different issues, policies, accountability, and what success looks like during this period. In the second phase, “ideate” will continue this work and begin to answer broader questions on how to go about reimagining campus safety.
The third phase, “implementation,” will focus on narrowing down specific practices on how to smoothly and sufficiently integrate new structures into campus safety.
The committee, which is partnering with Astig Planning, a local agency centered around advocacy and community assistance, is made up of 26 individuals and is chaired by Vice President of Student Life, Sarah Hanson. It is planning to give results and feedback from their findings to UI President Bruce Harreld this semester.
The Iowa Freedom Riders, an activist group that led protests in the summer and called for the defunding of the Iowa City Police Department, urged people to attend the forum on social media.
The event is closed to the public and people are able to submit questions by emailing the UI VP of Student Life. The second town hall is scheduled for Feb. 11 from 5 to 7 p.m.
