NSHE outlines campus safety upgrades after UNLV shooting; public safety council, standardized language proposed

Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Patty Charlton told the Senate Committee on Education that the system convened an ad hoc public safety committee after the Dec. 6, 2023, shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is moving several recommendations toward implementation. "That committee's charge is to evaluate and prioritize opportunities for improvement in system wide campus safety and emergency preparedness," Charlton said.

The chancellor and university police chiefs outlined work already under way. Chief Arnold Vasquez, interim chief of the University Police Department Southern Command, said the ad hoc group is being proposed to become a permanent Public Safety Council to review safety standards across NSHE institutions. "The Public Safety Council shall report to the Chancellor and shall be appointed in conformity with Title 2, Chapter 1 of the code to include representatives from each institution," Vasquez said.

The council's recommended and in‑progress items include a systemwide active‑assailant language and emergency response guides, standardized emergency information for course syllabi, expanded emergency communications and a proposal to centralize institutional safety web pages so users can find each campus's emergency information from a single NSHE page. Chief Eric James of UPD Northern Command said the system is also examining a single banner notification and a shared threat‑assessment software to improve cross‑campus information sharing.

Officials described training and technology changes: standardized "safety posters" for classrooms; tabletop and leadership exercises; a systemwide threat‑assessment policy; and consideration of classroom locking options and exterior access controls that comply with fire and life‑safety codes. James said the system is piloting shared threat‑management tools as TVTP grant funding continues to be processed. "As our TVTP grant continues to go through, we will have the ability to have a system wide process where north and south can communicate with any possible threats," he said.

Funding remains a constraint. Charlton told senators NSHE's infrastructure request to the Legislature and budget authorities was about $50,000,000 for facility upgrades, and the group has sought supplemental security funds from the Interim Finance Committee and congressional support for a 911 public safety answering‑point upgrade. Committee members pressed chiefs and the chancellor for cost estimates for perimeter access controls and for clearer timelines; officials said costs will vary by campus and that some institutions already have access control and camera upgrades in progress.

Senators asked about operational details raised by faculty and students at UNLV, including whether classroom doors will allow people to exit while preventing entry and how emergency notifications reach students and staff. James said NSHE institutions use a mass notification system called OmniAlert tied to administrative systems and student records so alerts reach phones and email addresses; Vasquez and James said any new locks would meet fire code and allow egress.

The legislative committee heard repeated requests for urgency from faculty and public commenters from UNLV, who called for rapid implementation and substantially more officers and security staffing on campus. Charlton said the recommendations and staffing requests will be brought to the Board of Regents' security committee and that the Public Safety Council will continue to seek federal, state and private funding sources to implement the program.

Several senators and the chancellor emphasized that some decisions depend on campus presidents and local priorities. Officials said they will return with implementation details and campus‑level funding breakdowns when available.