Stan Skipworth will officially become the permanent Director of Campus Safety effective April 15, 2015. After serving for four months as interim director, Skipworth was rehired with his new title at the culmination of a nationwide search for a new director.
The position of Director of Campus Safety became vacant when Shahram Ariane resigned in February 2014 to rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers as the team’s head of security. Dean Manship, the Claremont University Consortium’s emergency preparedness planning manager, then took on the position of interim director.
Meanwhile, a search committee looked for a more long-term interim director to allow Manship to focus on his main responsibilities in emergency preparedness. Skipworth was appointed as interim director Nov. 3, 2014.
A search committee for the permanent director was formed in fall 2014 and a nationwide search was carried out with the help of a firm that specializes in university and college security.
Early this semester, three candidates, including Skipworth, were chosen as potential candidates for the permanent position. In March, after the candidates interviewed with Deans of Students across the colleges and talked with both students and community members in open forums, the search committee recommended that Skipworth be hired by the consortium.
In an email to TSL, Skipworth explained that there are several programs that he has spearheaded as interim director that will continue into his tenure as permanent director. Campus Oriented Policing (COP) is a program intended to expand community engagement and for Campus Safety to “re-establish some of its core services.”
“This includes having teams of our officers assigned to one to two colleges as liaisons and be available to students, the student deans and other key staff for service needs that arise,” he wrote. “The COP program will also feature an internal [Campus Safety Department] trends analysis to determine solutions to any issues that establish a frequency or rate of occurrence we need to address differently.”
Skipworth has also standardized a Department Training Plan and developed a daily briefing training calendar so that officers remain up-to-date on information and procedures related to their work. Campus Safety has also expanded its emergency preparedness training.
Drew Herbert, associate dean of students at Pitzer College, said that Campus Safety has maintained good interactions with students and that he hopes these relationships will continue into Skipworth’s tenure as director.
“I more often than not hear [officers] when they’re confronting a student if the student is in violation of a policy, say, ‘Hey, what’s going on, how you doing over here, just wanted to check in with you,’” Herbert said. “They’re just starting the conversation that way, which I think is certainly a caring standpoint to start from. I think they’re providing a really nice service right now, but if anything I just hope that they don’t lose that personable aspect.”