The importance of debate security became more critical than expected with Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, an unexpected pick that stunned the world and excited voters who previously might not have been excited.

And with Palin shielded from most media contact by the McCain campaign, the vice presidential debate will be the first time voters will see how her credentials stack up directly against those of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, six-term Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).

“I never thought the VP debate would grab the attention of the world like it is. I think it’s based on the Republican Party’s candidate,” Jill Carnaghi, assistant vice chancellor for students and director of campus life, said. “It doesn’t appear to have let up much. Who ever thought that the VP debate would take the spotlight from the three presidential debates?”

After days of preparation and difficulties with funding, the University is hoping that the campus will be secure for another debate, after hosting presidential debates in 1992, 2000 and 2004. Don Strom, chief of the Washington University Police Department (WUPD), has been at the helm of the department’s security efforts for this debate and the 2000 and 2004 debates.

According to Strom, the security measures center around a unified command structure consisting of representatives from WUPD, St. Louis County, St. Louis City, University City and Clayton police departments and the Missouri Highway Patrol, in addition to fire and emergency services representatives.

Police departments in neighboring municipalities may also provide assistance.

“Part of our planning is to plan for a variety of different contingencies, all of which we hope don’t ever occur, but we take them into consideration and staff appropriately,” Strom told Student Life.

The U.S. Secret Service will also have a large presence. Strom noted that there would be a shared responsibility for security between the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies.

While the planned security measures will likely cause nuisances for students, faculty and campus visitors, University administrators like Carnaghi say the experience of a debate will make the security checkpoints and parking lot closure aggravations worthwhile.

“I’ve had some folks say, ‘One of the most memorable things was being involved in the 2000 or 2004 presidential debate, that I got to see it, I got to be there, or I got to meet Tim Russert or Tom Brokaw,’” Carnaghi said.

Access to campus restricted, lots and streets closed

Yesterday and today, access to campus has been restricted to students, faculty, staff and invited guests. The Office of Residential Life, as in past debates, implemented a no guest policy for students, which ends tomorrow afternoon.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton sent an e-mail to the University community detailing some of the campus restrictions during debate week. The e-mail advises students and staff to carry their ID cards at all times so they can pass through checkpoints.

“We’re going to have a lot of law enforcement people here who are not as familiar with our campus as our officers are, so if they ask somebody for their ID, they’re going to expect to see it,” Strom said.

Security measures have forced the closures of 10 parking lots and portions of Forsyth and Big Bend boulevards, and beginning at 11 a.m., all vehicle traffic entering campus must enter on Brookings Drive via Skinker Boulevard.

“A debate of this size and this importance requires a lot of various staff and media and guests, and it requires a certain amount of parking availability,” Nicholas Stoff, director of Parking and Transportation Services, said. “Some of those lots are [closed] also for security reasons with their distance to the [Athletic Complex].”

With the parking and traffic constraints, Stoff advises people to carpool or use alternative modes of transportation and to give themselves extra time.

A full list of parking restrictions is available at http://parking.wustl.edu.

Security funding difficulties

Security for the 2004 debate cost about $600,000, according to Strom. The University and other agencies involved have in those cases received $300,000 from the federal government in the form of the very competitive Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants.

For this year’s debate, the St. Louis Area Regional Response System (STARRS), a body that handles the St. Louis area’s requests for UASI grants, received several hundred thousand dollars of UASI grants, $300,000 of which STARRS agreed to allocate for the vice presidential debate.

But this past week the federal government withheld the money from use because the grant requires the Homeland Security terror alert level to be orange, or at a high risk of terror attacks. The current level is at yellow, one level lower.

“Certainly we’re disappointed, and it’s a competitive process. You’re always competing against other needs that people have,” Strom said. “It’s also frustrating that you get mixed signals from the start about what was going to be approved and what wasn’t, and after being told that it met the criteria and then being told later that it was not coming after all.”

The University and the other regional police agencies involved will now have to absorb the costs of security. But Strom says that even if the University had received the money, it would have given other agencies funding first.

“We already adopted a attitude internally that if the funding became available [WUPD] was not going to accept the funding. We were going to let the partners on the upside have that first,” Strom said. “It certainly wouldn’t have paid all their costs but it may have been something.”

Strom did not comment on how the costs would be spread among the involved law enforcement agencies, but he said that the number of officers each agency contributes would be one factor.

Regular Upper Row searches not anticipated

Although Greek Life officials recently said that the Secret Service would have the authority to search buildings in close proximity to the Athletic Complex regularly, Strom denied that the Secret Service would conduct regular searches, but it will have the authority to conduct searches if deemed necessary.

“I don’t anticipate any kind of searches that would involve dogs or anything like that,” Strom said. “Obviously if we perceive some sort of threat we would respond to that threat and investigate it.”

But fraternity members are not entirely safe from investigations. Yesterday and today, only the residents of Upper Row are being admitted to the area because crowds pose an additional security risk.

“There are certain stresses on our security measures that having too many people in that area could create,” Strom said.

Administration and students not concerned

Despite the laundry list of security measures, past inconveniences surrounding the debates, have been minor, according to Carnaghi.

“If anything, there were minor inconveniences that people were more than willing to contend with to in order to be part of it all,” the assistant vice chancellor said. “I don’t remember receiving any student complaints. If anything, there was kind of an excitement in the air.”

This debate will be no different. According to Carnaghi, the benefits afforded by the hosting of a debate outweigh the accompanying security inconveniences.

“I think all the benefits and opportunities far outweigh any inconvenience,” Carnaghi said. “From my perspective, the reason we take it on is so students can see firsthand the political process, so they can get involved if they want, they can offer to volunteer.”

“Let’s just hope the weather is good,” Carnaghi added. “That will be the biggest inconvenience.”

Overall, students like senior Adam Cohen, a Student Union senator who lives off campus, are taking the inconveniences in stride.

“Getting onto campus is going to be a little more difficult,” Cohen said. “Unfortunately it is kind of a big cost for Wash. U. But I think that the debate is a great thing in terms of publicity for Wash. U., and I think it’s a great thing in terms of getting students engaged in politics.”

But the agents will not be making any social visits. Instead, as one of the conditions for hosting the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2, the University is granting Secret Service agents full access to all buildings on campus. Buildings near the debate hall (which will be in the Athletic Complex), will receive highest priority, including all fraternity houses on the Upper Row and nearby academic buildings.

According to David Wallace, coordinator for housing programs in the Greek Life Office (GLO), the Secret Service will be allowed to search “everything, behind every door and behind every room,” and the searches may include bomb-sniffing dogs.

“What they’re looking for obviously are explosive devices, anything that might harm the candidates, anything that might disrupt the event,” Wallace said. “And in the process of that, if they discover anything other than that they may or may not take action depending on what they find.”

According to GLO Director Ryan-Jasen Henne, drug or other illicit substance violations will likely be handed over to the Washington University Police Department (WUPD) and the judicial administrator. If weapons or explosives are discovered, the Secret Service can arrest the violators on the spot, and agents can also detain any person for up to 72 hours without a reason.

A spokesman for the Secret Service declined to comment on the matter.

Agents may not be searching all of the residents’ drawers and closets, but Wallace says that they have the option of doing deeper searches if they find any hints of the presence of weapons or explosive devices in a hidden space.

“I can’t imagine if a bomb-smelling dog goes through a building and the officer perceives that the dog gets a whiff of something that they’re not going to follow up with that in some way, or shape or form,” Wallace said. “And if it’s by a dresser, if it’s by a closet, then their duty is to look through that stuff.”

Henne did not know when the Secret Service presence on campus would begin, but he suggested that it would be no later than Sept. 25.

According to Wallace, the fraternities are not the only buildings that will be searched. All buildings on campus are fair game for the Secret Service.

“There are steam tunnels that they’ll be going through, there are academic buildings over on that side of campus that they’ll be going through as well, there’ll be a presence within the parking garage,” Wallace said. “All that stuff around the Athletic Complex will be examined pretty closely.”

GLO has alerted fraternity men to the impending searches and encourages fraternity leaders to bring representatives from WUPD to chapter meetings to go over debate security information.

“Our side of it really is focusing on education so that the men know that during the week leading up to the debate, it’s going to be not as convenient,” Henne said.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC), which governs all 11 official fraternities at the University, has also made the issue of Secret Service searches an agenda item in order to educate fraternity members.

“We just basically kind of told them what to expect as far as educating them,” junior Brad Matherne, IFC vice president of campus and community outreach, said. “We told them that these officers are not WUPD. They’re the only officers in the country that can detain you for up to 72 hours, so don’t give them a hard time. If they want to come in and search your house, you have to let them. There’s nothing you or the University can do to say otherwise.”

According to Matherne, a security checkpoint will be set up in front of Anheuser-Busch Hall, which is directly adjacent to the Upper Row. During the week of the debate, the only people who will be admitted past the checkpoint and into the fraternity houses are house residents.

“It’s really unfortunate for guys who are in the fraternities on the Upper Row but don’t live in the houses, because they will not have access to the houses for that week,” Matherne said.

Within the fraternities, Henne believes that the fraternity leaders and house managers likely have their own plans for their residents. Fraternity leaders like senior Gary Palmerson, house manager of Theta Xi fraternity, are in the process of informing their residents about what to expect.

“I told them everything I was told, so we’re all on the same page, and let them know that this is not the time to mess around,” Palmerson said. “I just kind of gave them the basics right now. In a week or two, as we get closer, I’ll tell them all again and go into specifics.”

Palmerson is confident that there will be no problems from any of the fraternities, but he emphasizes that the Secret Service agents are not to be taken lightly.

“This is a group that can keep you in lockdown for 72 hours, and they need no reason or motive to do it, so we are going to be extra careful, more so than you normally would be,” he said. “I think we all realize that one stupid mistake by one brother could jeopardize everybody in the fraternity.”

Henne also does not foresee any problems coming from the fraternities.

“We’re in a space where we have confidence and faith in the men who live in the fraternity houses to be doing the right thing,” Henne said. “So we don’t really foresee a lot of trouble coming out of this because the guys for the most part are doing what they’re supposed to be doing anyway.”

While fraternity members and leaders applaud the Secret Service for taking security precautions, some find the searches unnecessary.

“I don’t think it’s necessary, but I like the fact and respect the fact that they can do it,” Palmerson said.

“For Wash. U’.s culture, I would say that they’re not necessary, but from a national security standpoint I’m going to say they are,” Matherne added. “I’m not expecting anyone to do anything that would be a threat to anyone in the fraternity houses themselves. But from a national security standpoint, you can’t afford to take chances on things like this.”