The Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), temporarily established by Executive Order 05-20 and made permanent by Executive Order 06-09 signed by Governor Matt Blunt on February 10, 2006, was established to review state and local security plans and make recommendations for changes that would better protect Missouri citizens.

In the aftermath of the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, Governor Blunt appointed the Governor’s Task Force on Campus Security, co-chaired by Robert Stein, Commissioner of Higher Education and Mark James, past Director of Public Safety. The mission of the task force was to identify best practices and provide recommendations for making Missouri’s college campuses as safe as possible.

The task force report presented to Governor Blunt in August 2007 entitled, Securing Our Future: Making Colleges and Universities a Safe Place to Learn and Grow, identified a void in the work of HSAC regarding higher education. One of the task force recommendations was to create a Higher Education Subcommittee (HES) of HSAC. Other recommendations identified several topics, reports, and activities that serve as a base for the subcommittee’s work:

• A needs analysis and fiscal impact study of campus security enhancements;
• The amount of new resources needed to support campus security enhancements;
• Identification of multiple funding sources;
• Resources and training opportunities related to safety and security;
• Analysis of rationales for and against POST-certified police officers on private campuses;
• And determination if legislation authorizing private institutions to establish police departments is necessary and appropriate;
• And review of the recommendations in the Campus Security Task Force Report and determination of next best steps.

The HES-HSAC serves as a formal venue for continued conversations, collection of relevant and current data, and identification of best practices surrounding preparation, response and recovery for all campus emergencies. The first HES-HSAC meeting was held February 5, 2008. The HES-HSAC meets approximately every two months. In recognition of Sunshine Law regulations, all meetings and minutes of the HES are posted on the Campus Safety and Security in Missouri website. All meetings are open to the public. Reports about the work of the HES-HSAC are made to HSAC at each of its regular meetings.