4 Ways Cleveland’s Colleges Are Bracing for the Republican Convention

Mark Gillispie, AP Images

A string of violent incidents at rallies held by Donald J. Trump has raised concerns that when the Republican National Convention comes to Cleveland, in mid-July, it could bring unrest with it. As the city prepares, area colleges are also doing so — updating their emergency-response plans, opening up dormitories to police and security officers from across the country, and advising their students on how to stay safe during the four-day event. Here are four steps Cleveland’s colleges are taking to prepare.

Expanding campus policing and coordinating with outside security forces

Most of Cleveland’s colleges are far enough away from the city center that they’re unlikely to be affected by any disruptions downtown. But two have campuses just a stone’s throw from the Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention will be held: Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College.

Cleveland State’s main campus is a little under a mile from the arena, inside the official protest area designated by the city as the “event zone.” In the run-up to the convention, campus police officers have met with local and national security forces — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security — to discuss potential threats, coordinate response plans, and set up a system for communicating during a crisis, according to Gary Lewis, chief of Cleveland State’s police department.

During the convention, the university will step up campus security, putting more officers on patrol. Mr. Lewis declined to say how many additional officers would be on duty that week. “Similar to other large-scale events,” he wrote in an email, “we do not discuss specific staffing numbers so as not to compromise campus public safety.”

Cuyahoga Community College will also increase security at its Metro campus, which is just over a mile from the arena. The college will bring in officers and equipment from its three other campuses, said Claire Rosacco, vice president for government relations and community outreach.

Gary Margolis, president of Social Sentinel Inc., a social-media-monitoring firm, said colleges need to be proactive when it comes to preparing for major events like a convention. That means having not only an emergency-response plan with clear points of contact, but also a “digital-threat strategy” for picking up “indicators of harm and violence” before they occur.

“If you’re doing it in the moment, you’re already behind the curve,” he said.

Letting students and staff members stay home while inviting others to the campus

At Cleveland State, only 1,700 students — less than 10 percent of the student body — are registered for the summer session that meets during the convention. Even so, the college is encouraging many of its faculty, staff, and students to work from home, and to teach — or take — courses online. Employees will also be allowed to shift their schedules to come to work during quieter times of the day.

Cuyahoga Community College has taken a different approach, compressing the academic calendar at its hospitality-management center, which is just a third of a mile from the arena. Classes that would normally last eight weeks will finish in just five, so they’re over before the delegates descend, Ms. Rosacco said. Classes at the Metro campus, which is half full during the summer, will go on as planned.

At the same time, colleges are opening up their relatively empty campuses to outside groups, offering meeting space and inexpensive housing. Cleveland State will house 500 police officers from the state highway patrol, along with 75 interns and pages from across the country, at rates ranging from $42 to $68 per night per bed. John Carroll University, 30 minutes east of the arena, will put up another 356 official security personnel for the Republican National Committee, while Baldwin Wallace University, a half-hour to the southwest, will rent 198 beds to government agencies and smaller university groups.

Colleges are preparing for uninvited guests, too. Because colleges are often viewed as havens of free speech, they tend to attract protesters of all stripes. That means some campuses could become gathering grounds for demonstrators who hope to disrupt the convention, said William F. Taylor, president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

Colleges might also be viewed as “soft targets” by attackers who can’t get past the high security at the convention site, Mr. Taylor warned.

“Let’s face it: It’s not just the people who aren’t happy with the candidate,” he said. “These days we have to think about things that could happen based on the politics of the nation, things like Orlando.”

Keeping tabs on students who will attend the convention

Every four years, hundreds of college students from around the country attend the national conventions as interns and volunteers. Baldwin Wallace University will host 130 of them for a week of seminars, followed by a week of field experience with news-media outlets, state delegations, interest groups, and national-security organizations.

The program, organized by the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, will begin with an orientation covering everything from what to do if public transit shuts down to the difference between evacuating and sheltering in place, said Kevin W. Nunley, the center’s vice president for student affairs. Students will be given a code of conduct and a manual that they can view on their phones with emergency procedures for active-shooter situations, violent protests, and other emergencies.

To stay in touch during an emergency, the program will use text alerts. Staff members will be on standby to help students who need a ride back to the campus, even if it’s just because they’ve stayed out after public transit has shut down. The program and the college have picked meeting points where students can congregate in the event of an emergency.

John Carroll University has obtained the contact information of students who are working for national media organizations and has asked them to contact a designated official with questions or concerns. But any communication is voluntary, and up to the students.

Some colleges, internship programs, and party leaders are supplying students with tip sheets on how to stay safe during the convention. Much of the advice is practical: stay hydrated in the heat; respect police officers and protest policies; and run away from, not toward, emergencies. The institutions are reminding students to be “situationally aware,” to have an exit strategy, and to decide on an emergency contact.

That may be the best colleges can do, said Robert L. Evans, a manager at Margolis Healy, which consults with campuses on public safety and security.

“There is no index card you can give them and say, If this bad thing A is happening, do B,” he said. “It really is making individual decisions based on the threats and hazards you’re exposed to.”

Making sure tennis players get their games in

On a lighter note, it looks as if tennis matches will go on at Cleveland State, even though the City of Cleveland has banned tennis balls — along with grappling hooks, canned goods, and a couple of dozen other items — in the event zone during the convention. William Dube, a spokesman for the university, said the city police had informed college officials that the university’s tennis courts are considered private space, so the ban won’t apply there.

The American Civil Liberties Union had mentioned the college courts in a lawsuit challenging the scope of the city’s restrictions, citing the tennis-ball ban as an example of the rules’ “absurdly wide reach.”

Kelly Field is a senior reporter covering federal higher-education policy. Contact her at kelly.field@chronicle.com. Or follow her on Twitter @kfieldCHE.

Clarification (6/29/2016, 11:25 a.m.): This article initially described John Carroll University as taking a “more hands-off approach” than the Washington Center in tracking its students. That comparison has been removed because the university, unlike the internship center, does not have direct responsibility for students interning at the convention.