A faculty-only meeting regarding the active shooter policy at Pace was held in Miller Hall’s video conference room on Thurs., Mar. 3.

Faculty urged for the active shooter scenario preparedness meeting in response to the rise in mass shootings countrywide, according to an email sent by the faculty center.

“Planning is important for potential scenarios, the odds are that this is not going to happen here, but it’s good for people to think about it so they know what to do if it were to happen,” said Dr. Melissa Cardon, management professor. “If somebody wants to get on campus and cause harm they will. Period. Do I think security does enough? If their response time is fast, yes.”

Pace’s active shooter policy is for campus security to address and respond if possible, call local police, and use the alert system, which is similar to the snow emergency system.

“[In the instance of an active shooter], you call security and we can put out the alert,” Director of Security Vincent Beatty said. “It all depends on how quick I get the message. I can get [the alert] out in a minute.”

Security is not equipped with firearms; hence why local authorities are to be called if there were a shooter on campus.

The meeting also detailed what faculty should do during an active shooter scenario through a short film called “Shots Fired: When Lightning Strikes,” that can be viewed on the university’s website.

Students can access the video through Residential Life and orientation, according to Beatty.

Upon completion of the video, Beatty, along with a couple others, spoke about Pace’s specific policy.

Representatives of the Mount Pleasant Police Department were present to clarify their role on the Pace campus, which include random patrols as per campus security’s request.

Emergency Medical Services, Mt. Pleasant, Pleasantville, and Ossining police departments have been training on the Pleasantville and Briarcliff campuses for the last three months in order to familiarize themselves with the facilities.

These training sessions occur during times when students are not on campus.

Beatty then addressed concerns regarding the open nature of the campus.

This campus has three entrances, one of which has a guard booth that is manned between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., Monday through Friday.

Traffic flow, by car and pedestrian, inside the university is between two and three thousand daily. According to the Master Plan, there will be a second guard booth added to entrance two, and entrance one will be removed.

“The last I saw of it, the plan was for two entrances onto campus,” Beatty said. “There’s internal roadwork that needs to be done.”

There is no timetable for when the second booth will be added or when entrance one will be removed.

There are currently no plans to offer this meeting to the student body.