University President Jehuda Reinharz made a landmark decision Wednesday morning when he announced that the University would begin arming its campus police officers with handguns. The question of whether the officers should be armed has arisen before, most recently following the Virginia Tech shootings last April, with officers arguing that they need guns to perform their jobs effectively and administrators countering that the low crime rate on campus makes guns an unnecessary tool. But with the release of a fire arms committee's recommendation to arm the officers, Vice President of Campus Operations Mark Collins said, all officers will undergo firearm training within the next three months under Waltham and state police officers. Most officers have already been trained by the state to operate firearms, former Union representative Ron Haley told the Justice in April 2006.

Training and arming officers will cost around $100,000, Executive Vice President of Campus Operations Peter French said.

Reinharz convened the firearms advisory committee comprised of administrators, students, faculty and staff over the summer. The committee, while at first divided, the report said, ultimately recommended to arm the officers.

"I started this process with really a very open mind, and I was very mindful of the pros and cons of arming or not arming," said French, who chaired the committee. "As we went through the discussion and the presentations throughout the summer, I really came to the conclusion, as did the committee, that it was appropriate to arm the Brandeis police officers."

"I think that the committee report speaks for itself, and I think that [arming] is a prudent decision," Collins said.

Collins said last month that the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute caused him to rethink his previous stance against arming the officers.

According to the report, some members of the committee were reluctant to arm officers because they feel a college campus should be a protected space, free of guns.

Taletha Derrington (GRAD), an international student who served on the committee, is pleased that her objections to arming the officers are included in the report, but she wrote in an e-mail to the Justice Monday that she still has concerns regarding the final decision.

"I do not think the report's recommendation represents the consensus of the committee accurately-. It was my understanding that we would recommend at least one community forum to share what we learned with the Brandeis community and allow those who were not around during the summer to participate in the discussion," she wrote.

"I had hoped that rather than following the pack of other universities that have armed their police, Brandeis would have stood by its commitment to social justice by making a decision that uses our brains rather than our brawn to address the issue of campus security," Derrington wrote.

Of the 26 private schools in the Association of American Universities, 20 currently arm their police officers, including Harvard University and Brown University.

Students were also reported to feel uneasy about the presence of guns because they have experienced police brutality in their home communities.

Ultimately, the committee decided that the Virginia Tech tragedy changed the context of their deliberations swaying several committee members.

The committee received presentations from Brandeis and Waltham officers, among others, all in support of arming, Collins said.

"I was responsible to make the final presentation on arming the police officers," Haley said. "The Brandeis University police officers are very effectively trained and this is just a tool to perform the job they need to do."

He encouraged the community and the administration to continue supporting the officers.

In a campuswide e-mail earlier this month, French wrote, "In its five meetings, the committee studied practices on other campuses, heard from the Acting Chief of the Waltham Police Department and safety and security officers from other campuses, spoke with Brandeis Public Safety officers, and deliberated the options in depth."

The committee found that, among other things, many members of the University Police force are already trained with municipal police and are licensed to carry firearms.

The report also says that in emergency situations the Brandeis police must call on the Waltham Police to respond. But Waltham officers aren't as familiar with the campus' layout and often take between two and five minutes, and sometimes longer, to arrive on campus.

Currently, Brandeis officers "are not allowed to respond to any situation in which weapons are reported or present," the report says.

"The Waltham police do not know their way around the buildings and campus the way that our officers do. In dangerous and/or highly ambiguous situations, Brandeis Public Safety Officers are able to respond much more quickly, owing to their knowledge of the University's people and physical layout," the report states.

Brandeis Public Safety Officers are able to respond much more quickly, owing to their knowledge of the University's people and physical layout," the report states.

The committee consisted of French, Derrington, Alex Braver '09, Choon Woo Ha '08, Prof. Jon Chilingerian (Heller) and Prof. Marya Levenson (EDU), as well as Financial Services staffer Sherri Avery and Alumni?Relations staffer Elisa Gassel.

Callahan, Collins, University spokesperson Lorna Miles, Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer and General Counsel Judith Sizer attended meetings as support staff, the report says.

The administration recently added several emergency communications procedures on campus, including voice and text messaging to campus telephones, text messaging to cell phones and outdoor sirens.

"Everybody's happy," one anonymous police officer said. The officer was granted anonymity because officers are prohibited from speaking to the media.