Football Season Crowd Control to be Discussed at Workshop

by CLEMSONews - Tue Aug 24 17:43:02 GMT-04:00 2004

CLEMSON -- Three days before the football season opener in "Death Valley," university officials from more than 30 schools around the nation will meet at Clemson University to discuss crowd control. The topic is part of the three-day National University Security Workshop.

Clemson University, through the South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies, plays host to the program at the Conference Center & Inn at Clemson University Aug. 30 through Sept. 1.

The workshop brings together senior academic executives, research officers, security officers, facility managers and faculty involved in security to share concerns particular to universities. The workshop also will explore what universities and colleges already do to make secure academic, research and cultural environments.

"Crowd control is a high-visibility issue for colleges, especially ones like Clemson or the University of Georgia, where more than 80,000 football fans can gather on an afternoon," said Lawrence Golan, workshop leader and special assistant to the vice president of research at Clemson.

Clemson President Jim Barker will address the conference, and representatives from various universities will lead sessions.

Mary Poore, associate vice president for municipal services at Clemson, will be the discussion leader for a daylong session on security for college campuses and lead a presentation on crowd control. Topics will include campus access and control, new technologies and health concerns along with other issues that campus security personnel face every day.

Land-grant universities have an added security issue:

biosecurity. Greg Queen, acting director of the Office of Research Compliance and Clemson University veterinarian, will lead a field exercise and classroom discussion on maintaining security in and around university livestock exhibition centers and animal research farms. Attendees will visit Clemson field sites to assess risk potentials and then devise a plan to respond to an emergency.

For the workshop schedule and list of speakers and topics, go to http://www.clemson.edu/scies/NationalUniversitySecurity2.htm.