Four active shooter response training sessions will be held in the Library and Academic Resources Center, the first time such training has ever been offered at CSU-Pueblo. Photo courtesy of fuparknews.blogspot.com

The Pueblo County Sheriff’s office is putting on a presentation to prepare students for a possible shooting emergency on campus.

“Colorado State University-Pueblo strives to provide a safe environment for the campus community. We recognize that in order to feel safe, you first must feel prepared,” Lieutenant Bill Brown said, in an email to the campus community.

The sessions will include watching a video called “Shots Fired on Campus,” followed by a question and answer session with deputies and law enforcement personnel from the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.

There is a shorter video online which students can view before the safety sessions entitled “Run, Hide, Fight.”   This video shows people in a workplace setting. When a shooter enters the scene, it shows people responding in the different recommended ways.

Samantha Hernandez, program assistant at the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, recommended watching both videos.

“This is applicable to more than just a campus setting,” Hernandez said.

There will be four active shooter response training sessions held in the Library and Academic Resources Center, room 109. The sessions will be given on Tuesday, Feb. 19 from 8-9 a.m. or 2:30 -3:30 p.m. and on Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 8-9 a.m. or 2-3 p.m.

This is the first training of this scale that has ever been offered on Colorado State University’s campus, Hernandez said.

“This kind of stuff is being introduced in smaller groups, orientation groups and staff and faculty have already viewed it. This is by far the most encompassing group that will experience it,” Hernandez said.

Though the school has not been receiving complaints about safety on campus, it has had many questions arise about the issue.

“The Sandy Hook shooting was in the news and people were saying, ‘What would we do if this happened here?’ Instead of answering every individual question, we’re hitting a larger audience,” Hernandez said.

The PROPEL program at Colorado State University Pueblo seeks STEM mentors. Photo courtesy of merchantos.com

The Providing Opportunities to Excel program at Colorado State University Pueblo is seeking mentors from the community to aid students in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines.

“We’re looking for primarily people in STEM disciplines. They could be an engineer, someone in biomedical or someone with a chemical background; anyone who has a career that a student in STEM might be interested in,” Tina Moore, the director of PROPEL said.

The mentors also need to be local, successful professionals, preferably someone from the Pueblo area, Moore said. They would be expected to talk about technical things going on in their area of interest, job development and what it takes for students to get to their type of position.

Mentors would not be expected to tutor students, since tutoring in these disciplines is already available in the Math Learning Center.

“What we want the mentors to do is say, ‘this is where I am and this is how I got there,’” Moore said. “We want them to encourage the students; to show them that if the mentor got through it, then the student can get through it too.”

According to the news release, groups of 12 students or fewer would be assigned to each mentor. The mentor would be expected to spend eight hours mentoring per semester, four hours of face-to-face and four hours of electronic communications.

The program was made possible last year by a grant of $4.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant is to be dispersed over a period of five years, and has allowed for many improvements in the STEM areas, including the purchase of new equipment, such as telescopes and microscopes.

The grant will now allow for the program to acquire the mentors, Moore said.

School officials are hoping that the new program will improve retention in the discipline areas and the Pueblo community.

“Research has shown that students who have mentors tend to stick with their career, and we are hoping that having a mentor will encourage them to stay in the area,” Moore said.

Allowing students to find local research projects that tie to their mentors is one way Moore mentioned which would help improve retention to the area.

The program could also encourage students to stay in the area because it allows local businesses to meet possible future interns and workforce members.

Under-served populations at CSU-Pueblo could also potentially benefit from the new program.

CSU-Pueblo is a Hispanic Serving Institution, it is also hoped that Hispanic retention rates in STEM programs to increase, Moore said. Other under-served groups which this is supposed to help include first generation students and low-income students.

Mentors who participate in the program will be eligible for a stipend of $500.

“We know it’s not much, it’s more to say thank you than to really pay them for their time,” Moore said.